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Post by Pete on Jul 21, 2008 18:33:58 GMT
I was just sending a personal message when the system came up with the following: "This forum is currently updergoing it's weekly backup. This process can take anywhere from a few seconds to a few hours depending on the size of the forum. Please check back at a later time." A typo and an unnecessary apostrophe.
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Post by Paul Doherty on Jul 21, 2008 20:34:16 GMT
Not my doing!
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Post by Pete on Jul 22, 2008 13:11:50 GMT
Perish the thought!!
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Post by Vadim on Jul 22, 2008 14:23:47 GMT
When reading your posts, Pete, Paul, it raised an interesting question for me. When does one (in your opinions) use one exclamation mark, two marks, 3 marks, 3+ marks etc.?
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Post by Alan Palmer on Jul 22, 2008 15:20:24 GMT
In my opinion, one uses one exclamation mark to indicate an exclamation. Multiple exclamation marks are unecessary.
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Post by SusanB on Jul 22, 2008 15:21:18 GMT
When reading your posts, Pete, Paul, it raised an interesting question for me. When does one (in your opinions) use one exclamation mark, two marks, 3 marks, 3+ marks etc.? This is an interesting comment, Vadim. I would have (of ) said "in your opinion", even though they have an opinion each, and might disagree with each other. As for the exclamation marks, I would normally use one. But I'd allow myself three if I really wanted to emphasise my exclamtion. (I can't get excited enough to use more than three, though.) Pete just can't make up his mind how much of an exclamation to make... and three full stops to finish.
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Post by Paul Doherty on Jul 22, 2008 15:50:47 GMT
We discussed this on the APS. I think we all agree that multiple exclamation or question marks are to be avoided in formal writing.
In informal writing, we disagree: I think there's a role for ?? and !! and !? and ?! -- but some people say they have no meaning (which can't be true) or that they don't like them (which is fair enough, I suppose).
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Post by Twoddle on Jul 22, 2008 17:37:18 GMT
We discussed this on the APS. I think we all agree that multiple exclamation or question marks are to be avoided in formal writing. In informal writing, we disagree: I think there's a role for ?? and !! and !? and ?! -- but some people say they have no meaning (which can't be true) or that they don't like them (which is fair enough, I suppose). I'm one of those who thinks that an exclamation is an exclamation and a question is a question, and that multiple marks are not only superfluous, they show an immature attitude. (Ooh, hark at him, the supercilious git!) One newish mark that I do endorse, however, is the interrobang (?!) because there are occasions when it's appropriate to ask a question in an exclamatory fashion, aren't there?! (Tone hates it, by the way.)
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Post by Pete on Jul 22, 2008 18:14:06 GMT
I don't work to a rule, so it tends to be random. But ! means !, and might occasionally be taken too seriously. While !! means ! in a jocular way. Compare: "Vadim's used 'of' again!" with "Vadim's used 'of' again!!" I would hope the second version makes it clear that I am just joshing you, albeit with a point behind the comment. In a way: ! = or !! = or ;D and !!! = ;D ;D
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Post by Pete on Jul 22, 2008 18:14:43 GMT
Ooooh!! 666 - the number of the beast.
Drat, it's gone now!
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Post by Pete on Jul 22, 2008 18:16:42 GMT
Ooooh!! 666 - the number of the beast. Drat, it's gone now! Someone sells T-shirts with the logo "667, the neighbour of the beast". But surely 664 or 668 would be the neighbour of the beast, at least in the UK.
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Post by Twoddle on Jul 22, 2008 18:22:34 GMT
Ooooh!! 666 - the number of the beast. Drat, it's gone now! Someone sells T-shirts with the logo "667, the neighbour of the beast". But surely 664 or 668 would be the neighbour of the beast, at least in the UK. Hasn't some learned bod recently discovered that the number was actually 616, or 166, or some other bus route?
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Post by Pete on Jul 22, 2008 18:25:45 GMT
Someone sells T-shirts with the logo "667, the neighbour of the beast". But surely 664 or 668 would be the neighbour of the beast, at least in the UK. Hasn't some learned bod recently discovered that the number was actually 616, or 166, or some other bus route? Presumably it's the bus I used to catch from to Campden Hill, where I was studying. The destination of the bus was World's End (in Chelsea, apparently).
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Post by Paul Doherty on Jul 22, 2008 18:32:56 GMT
... multiple marks are not only superfluous, they show an immature attitude. Well, they are not superfluous, they definitely convey meaning. If I was writing a novel, I could write: "Did they not find out," she asked, startled. In conversation I could write Didn't they find out? But it sounds too languid. If I write Didn't they find out?? ... it conveys the right amount of astonishment. No doubt I could do it with more words, but just as didn't is a useful shortening of did not, so ?? is useful. (As is ppl for people, but that's a different argument.) Whether it's immature is not for me to judge.
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Post by Twoddle on Jul 22, 2008 18:38:12 GMT
You're judgement's as valid as mine, Paul, but if I read "Didn't they find out??" in a book, I'd assume the proofreader had missed a typo.
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