Slusher: Tweets, reality TV and confusing excitement

I wonder if you can guess which part of this phrase, which I noticed while reviewing Twitter one day last week, got me to click on the link that followed: "that is not how you use an exclamation mark, kim kardashian"

That's right. It was "exclamation mark." I don't know anything about Kim Kardashian, except that I seem to hear her name ringing constantly in my ears and I can't escape her face at the grocery store checkout.

The tweet had me at "exclamation mark," but I admit that my curiosity was also piqued by the question of why, considering all the things I seem to hear about her, anyone would expect Kim Kardashian to know or care about the use of a punctuation mark (and why, if they were so intent on precise punctuation, they wouldn't capitalize her name.) So, I clicked.

I was taken to a deliciously insightful and clever reflection by Slate's Katy Waldman on the use of the exclamation mark, taking as its reference point this sentence from a Kardashian tweet: "Today marks the 100 year anniversary of Armenian Genocide!" Waldman suggests that perhaps Kardashian punctuated as she did because the exclamation mark has become some sort of "politeness indicator" online, somehow showing the writer's sincerity. "Or," she writes, "maybe Kardashian West wanted her followers to know she was genuinely moved by the anniversary - in a world where 'Thanks!' means 'thanks' and 'Thanks,' means 'I hate you,'" She also speculates that Kardashian might have wanted to show her sense of shock about the magnitude of the event she was acknowledging or that the reality television star was just exhibiting a sort of childish delight in the information she was transmitting.

And so, you are by now asking yourself, this relates to the Daily Herald how? It is this: We don't use many exclamation marks in our writing, nor italics either, and there is a good reason for that. A simple punctuation mark - whose reason for existing, remember, is to improve clarity - can be confoundingly misleading.

The exclamation mark is a particular bane of my existence in all the letters to the editor I read, some of which are so littered with exclamations, italics and WORDS IN ALL CAPITAL LETTERS!!!! that I wonder, first, whether the writer burst a vein in the process of typing and, second, just what the writer hopes to be getting across. I remove almost all of them, and never permit two or more in succession. If this is a problem for a simple letter to the editor, you can imagine the confusion our news writers could cause if they tried to capture the precise tone of a speaker every time they quoted someone complaining about a tax hike or describing some exciting new initiative.

Yes, it is true that the bland exclusion of certain typographical clues can leave you to guess the precise tone or phrasing that a given speaker used, but it is also true - and more problematic - that a writer's use of such clues can send the wrong message. In the end, it's better to just let you, the reader imagine for yourself how much and what kind of emphasis a word or phrase should have rather than to risk suggesting an emphasis or meaning that was not intended.

Unlike Elaine Benes's boss Mr. Lippman of television's Seinfeld, I am not one to forbid all uses of the exclamation mark, but like her boyfriend Jake in another episode, I also am not one to use the symbol haphazardly. No, the subject is not one most people will get too excited about, but if you're a reality TV star with a reputation for vacuity, it can help you avoid a tweet that seems to confirm the impression.

Jim Slusher, jslusher@dailyherald.com, is an assistant managing editor at the Daily Herald. Follow him on Facebook at facebook.com/jim.slusher1 and on Twitter at @JimSlusher.