Very interesting to note the serial abuse of the exclamation mark in parts of this thread. In my trade we call exclamation marks screamers, a good word for them.

It is apparently a condition of being a prat that there is a compulsion to deploy meaningless strings of screamers and question marks, in the belief that this somehow lends weight or endorsement to an aerated opinion.

It looks like the literal equivalent of some red-faced old bigot spluttering with rage. This tends to portray the abuser of exclamation marks, et al, as either a comical blimp or an ignoramus.

It's significant that our correspondent, Get Plucked, starts out by firing off just a scattering of three or four screamers in a row to endorse his or her opinions. As he or she gets more wound up, the number of screamers and question marks increase exponentially --- fairly spluttering with indignation!

Calm down, Get Plucked. People go on courses to learn about stuff that interests them. I believe the grammar, syntax and punctuation module comes highly recommended.

Pip pip

Screamer