Fine words for food writers

Use of the exclamation mark appears to be on the rise. Compelling arguments for this include the influence of technological change, the spillage of online communication into every form of written communication and the influence of comic books.

This post reviews six of the ways in which the exclamation mark is used. Three of these are standard (and reputable), and the other three are non-standard (if not downright delinquent).

Tone and Voice

The exclamation is a punctuation mark, but unlike the comma, say, which is concerned with grammar, the exclamation mark is concerned with tone and voice.

Since tone and voice convey emotion, it’s useful to think of the exclamation mark as an emoticon, albeit one that appeared in the 1400s.

Until 1700 the exclamation mark was known as ‘the mark of admiration’ — admiration, in this case, in the religious sense of ‘wonderment’. It’s also hypothesised that, in a very literal sense, the exclamation mark derives from the Latin word ‘lo’, which means ‘joy’. Over time, the ‘o’ of ‘lo’ slipped under the ‘l’, and the exclamation mark was born.

Its ability to manipulate tone and voice is key to understanding how you can use the exclamation mark in your writing. Let’s now look at the six possibilities for this mark.

1. To indicate strong emotion

The most reputable use for the exclamation mark is to express strong emotion:

• ‘What a gorgeous smell in this bakery!’
• ‘How mean the portions were!’

These two sentences are exclamatory sentences. Notice the special constructions of their beginings: ‘What + …’ and ‘How + …”.

Quite simply, exclamatory sentences express strong emotion. They always end with an exclamation mark.

But you can also use the exclamation mark to turn simple declarations (declarative sentences) into exclamations and show how emphatic your feelings are:

• ‘That lemon torte was fantastic!’
• ‘I loathe making pastry!’

Note:

• This usage is standard.
• Too many exclamatory utterances can give your writing a breathless, manic tone.
• Too much wonder can make your writing childlike.

2. To indicate a raised voice or shouting

Another accepted use for the exclamation mark is to convey a raised voice or shouting:

• ‘The milk is boiling over!’
• ‘The chip pan’s on fire!’
• ‘I won’t tolerate that behaviour in my kitchen!’

A raised voice or shouting can also occur when an urgent order is given. The following sentences give orders, so they are known as imperative sentences (and they also show why slang words for the exclamation mark include ‘screamer’, ‘gasper’, shriek’ and ‘bang’):

• ‘Don’t touch that pan!’
• ‘Get the fire blanket!’
• ‘Get out of my kitchen!’

3. To indicate irony, sarcasm, amusement or exasperation

Some writers use an exclamation mark inside parentheses to tease out the subtext in a given situation:

• ‘When I pointed out there was a fly in my soup the waiter told me not to boast, or everyone would want one (!)’
• ‘Yeah, I just love queuing for two hours in the rain to get a table (!)’
• ‘The waitress said that no one else had complained (!)’
• ‘We were charged eight pounds for a small jug of tap water (!)’

Note:

• Critics of this usage argue that the writer should be able to show the irony (or other subtext) of the situation by using well-chosen words rather than succumbing to the exclamation mark.

In our examples so far the exclamation marks have appeared at the end of the sentence, but they don’t always.

4. To draw attention to an interruption in a sentence

In the following examples the writer strives for dramatic effect by drawing attention to an interruption (interjection) in a sentence. These interruptions are self-reflexive moments in which the writer comments on how she/he feels about a given situation:

• ‘The heat (ugh!) of the kitchen was stifling.’
• ‘I’ll never forget the sweet scent (heavenly!) in the kitchen when my grandmother made strawberry jam.’
• ‘The sight of the butchered pig’s head (yeurgh!) made me queasy.’

Note:

• Critics of this usage argue that better writing would have enabled the reader to infer the emotion from the context, thus making the exclamation mark unnecessary.
• Too many of these can make your writing come across as self-indulgent jumping up and down, as if to say, ‘Look at me! Look at how I feel about this! It’s so important I’m going to tell you twice: ‘stifling’ + ‘ugh’, ‘sweet scent’ + ‘heavenly’ and ‘queasy’ + ‘yeurgh’.

5. To grade the strength of emotion conveyed

And now we come to the second most delinquent use of all: multiple consecutive exclamation marks.

If one exclamation mark indicates that you’re quite angry:

• ‘I won’t tolerate that behaviour in my kitchen!’

Six exclamation marks (so the logic goes) indicate that you’re six times as angry:

•  ‘I won’t tolerate that behaviour in my kitchen!!!!!!’

Here we have punctuation as steroids pumping the emotional power of the sentence.

Critics of this usage regard it as infantile, amateurish and crass. They argue that since exclamation marks don’t convey the grade of the strength of emotion, using more two or more consecutively is meaningless, in the same way that using two consecutive commas is meaningless. Exclamation marks, in other words, don’t stack.

But wait. Wait!!! Exclamation marks do stack. In fact, an exclamation mark ‘scale’ is suggested here, and you can see a visual representation of such a scale here.

Let’s look at some writing situations in which the ‘multiple, consecutive’ usage is well-established.

Think about the incessant noise in comic strips:

• ‘Kerpow!!!!!!’
• ‘Biff!!!!’

And the windy exhuberance of pre-teen texters:

• ‘C u l8r!!!!’

The exasperation of hipster tweeters:

• ‘FFS!!!!!!!!!’
• ‘WTF!!!!!!!’

And the menace of ransom notes, where the consequences of non-compliance will be so dire that only multiple exclamations marks can hint at them:

• ‘Leave the bag of money in the phone box next to the church … or else !!!!!!!!!’

Finally, there’s a new breed of writers who stack their exclamation marks like there’s no tomorrow, deliberately producing sentence bling:

• Did I get smashed? I was so off my face!!!!!!!!!
• What are you like? I mean, just what are you like!!!!!!!!!

Notice the word ‘deliberately’ here; it’s not that these writers should know better but rather that they do know better. We could call these writers ironists, because in their meta-use of the exclamation mark they are being ironic, using them, as Stuart Jeffries points out, as a witty riposte to their over-use.

Note:

• If you want to come across as a superhero, pre-teen texter, ransom note writer; or if you want to blingify your sentences in an ironic way, and some people do (!), this is the method for you.

6. To convey emphatic nullities

And now to the lowest of the low. Assigning an exclamation mark to unremarkable, banal utterances (‘emphatic nullities’, in Jason Rubin’s words) is surely the worst possible way to use it.

This kind of use, alas, is common:

We arrived at the restaurant twenty minutes early! We were quickly seated and given menus! We were looking forward to getting stuck in! A great time was had by all!

These are simple statements — they do not express strong emotion — and do not need or deserve an exclamation mark.

Note:

• Using an exclamation with a sentence that doesn’t express a strong emotion makes your writing come across as numptyish.
• Critics of this usage argue (rightly) that if everything is emphasised, nothing is emphasised.

To sum up

This piece looked at six uses for the exclamation mark:

1. To indicate strong emotion
2. To indicate a raised voice or shouting
3. To indicate irony, sarcasm, amusement or exasperation
4. To draw attention to an interruption in a sentence
5. To grade the strength of emotion conveyed
6. To convey emphatic nullities

So what does all of this mean for you as a food writer and/or blogger?

It all depends on your subject and audience: what you are writing about and who you are writing it for. Your blog is a personal expressive space, so you can use exclamation marks in whatever way you like. Just remember the different effects they create.

If, on the other hand, you have been commissioned to write a piece for a digital or conventional publisher, or you are writing a book, you will be expected to adhere to your publisher’s style guide, which is highly likely to be conservative in terms of use of the exclamation mark. The style will be informative, objective and standard.

Bear in mind novelist Meg Wolitzer’s  rule:

I guess my only rule is to use the exclamation point sparingly, like adverbs, italics and cortisone cream.

Good stuff on the exclamation mark

Ryan Britt, Bang! How the Exclamation Mark Makes US Into Comic Characters

Tim Carmody, Marshall McLuhan

Jacob Rubin, So Many Exclamation Points!

Aimee Lee Ball, Talking (Exclamation) Points

Stuart Jeffries, The joy of exclamation marks!

E. B., Punctuation and Shame: When to use an exclamation mark!

Photo credits

Thank you to everyone below for making your photos available:

Cobrasoft, Exclamation mark

Kristina R, Dog singing

Raichinger, love

buzzybee, Laughing Otters

Ale Paiva, rage 2

binababy12, Jewelry

And thanks to copyediting.com for pointing out the ‘Stupidity’ thumbnail on Photobucket.

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