4/22/22 - Friday Forget-Me-Nots by Jim Silcott

Photo Caption: Third Quarter Honors Breakfast.

Dear Our Lady of Peace Family,

I have a punctuation problem! It is sitting at the end of the previous sentence. Add this thorny issue to the list that befalls me in 2022. Granted, it is a small problem. Literally it is about an eighth of an inch. But for me, and I suspect for many, it is a problem nonetheless. It really is! See, I can’t seem to get through a paragraph without it! Oh my, I have already used it three times! Now four! I am addicted to the exclamation mark! Five! Six! Will this compulsion ever end?

In the days before becoming a principal I was a high school and later a college English teacher. Frank O’Hare, who was the guru of freshman English composition at Ohio State back in the seventies, abhorred the exclamation mark. “The use of the exclamation mark,” he would proclaim, “is for writers who can’t properly express the emotion of the sentence adequately through word choice.”

And so, following Dr. O’Hare’s mandate for exclamation free writing, I repeated his maxim to my classes, maybe not with his passion but with my red pen whenever I saw its use in a paper.

But I really didn’t need much prodding to follow his advice. I am a huge fan of Ernest Hemingway. Short sentences are better. With a period at the end of them. The emotion of his writing was in his description of the nature of the world and of people’s hearts, not in sentence length. Although Hemingway, the man, had many, many flaws as a writer, his use of punctuation was flawless.

So how did I become an exclamation mark addict? When I began principaling 33 years ago, communication was mainly by phone or direct conversation. I had the tone and volume of my voice as well as my face and its expressions in face to face communications to convey the meaning behind the message. Then came emails and the floodgate opened.

The exclamation marks didn’t start all at once. They crept into my electronic communication slowly like the tickle in your throat that turns into a cold. The more emails I found myself writing the more I worried that simply using periods gave the impression to people that I was being cold and monotone, like Joe Friday on the old television show, Dragnet. “Just the facts.” I desired to show enthusiasm in my email replies. The exclamation mark was an attempt to do that. “That was a great suggestion, Mrs. Higgenbottom,” turned quickly into, “That was a great suggestion, Mrs. Higgenbottom!” See, Mrs. Higgenbottom? I really want you to know that I care about your email and its content!

Of course an exclamation mark can also be used for evil intent. If you say, “Please do not bother me again!” then you are yelling at someone in your writing. I try never to use the exclamation mark in a negative or bad news communication. And don’t get me started about the use of capping all your letters. That is EXTREMELY NEGATIVE!

Of course, emails are quickly being replaced by the dreaded texts. For the most part my text communication is to family and friends so I have been able to keep the exclamation mark out of the bubbles, but my use of texts is growing professionally. Luckily, as have I become more proficient with texts I have discovered memes. For instance, when a teacher texts me to tell me that she will not be in school tomorrow I used to just type “okay.” I worried that I was not being sympathetic enough. I disovered one day that when you type “okay” it will quickly turn into a thumbs up picture. That seems a little more friendly.” I got your message and I hope you feel better” are all conveyed by that upraised thumb. And no, I have never used the meme with another lone finger upraised, no matter how tempted I might be at times.

When I finally retire I am going back to a flip phone with no text capability and my old manual typewrtiter, and I will use the postal service no matter the cost. In the meantime, the exclamation marks will probably continue. Sorry Dr. O’Hare. I hope you don’t judge me too harshly! Oops, I did it again.

Jim Silcott