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12/13/2004 Entry: "Business English on the skids"

Here is an interesting article from the NY Times titled "What Corporate America Can't Build: A Sentence". It just goes to show how much an asset it is to stick to good, coherent, concise language went writing letters and email in a business scenario.

"People think that throwing multiple exclamation points into a business letter will make their point forcefully," Ms. Andrews said. "I tell them they're allowed two exclamation points in their whole life."

That's funny. But I have a bone to pick with another writing "expert" mentioned in the article, who contradicts what all of the others are saying:

"If you want to indicate stronger emphasis, use all capital letters and toss in some extra exclamation points," Ms. Sherwood advises in her guide, available at www.webfoot.com, where she offers a vivid example:

"Should I boost the power on the thrombo?

"NO!!!! If you turn it up to eleven, you'll overheat the motors, and IT MIGHT EXPLODE!!"

No, no, no. No. Bad girl. If you feel so linguistically inadequate that your reader might miss out on the most urgent points in your message, try using bold or italics. Admittedly, those two printing devices are not meant for emphasis in sentences; the emphasis should already be clear. Still, exclamation marks denote immaturity and caps constitute shouting. Everytime I read a sentence written with either of these I get the feeling I'm dealing with a moron.

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