Children being encouraged to use multiple exclamation marks!!!!!

[lecce]

Ds (Y1) was writing a little story at home today. He wrote a sentence about a whale eating the wrong kind of prey, or something (totally obsessed with Blue Planet at the moment) and then solemnly added a row of exclamation marks. Now I must admit I kind of shouted (not angrily, but maybe loudly) something along the lines of, "Ds, what on earth are they for?! One will do!" He looked crestfallen and said that his teacher had told them that the more you add, the more drama it adds to the writing. My own feelings on the matter are, well, the opposite.

My views may be coloured by the fact that I am a secondary school English teacher and and have read rather too many mediocre pieces of work entitled 'My English Story!!!!!' or 'Essay!!!!!'

Do I need to switch off my teacher-head and accept that this is a valid way of encouraging six year-olds to use a variety of punctuation, and ds will abandon the habit in good time, or can I find a way to tactfully discourage him, without seeming to undermine the teacher?

(Incidentally, I hate it, and would be appalled if my child was taught this in school. And yes, if I saw someone using multiple exclamation marks, I would assume they were a bit dim.)

I understand why you did it exotic and as said on an internet forum I would say it's perfectly acceptable (I would do it a different way on an internet forum which again would be acceptable I hope) but neither of us would do it in other circumstances.

Agreed- I wouldn't expect people to think that my normal, quickly dashed off posts, are my normal way of writing and added to that my iPad has the most peculiar ideas and I don't always catch it in time!

However I think that people are being very hard - you have to remember this is a year 1 child and many will be struggling to get a full stop and capital letter.
I would be pleased that they understood the concept of the exclamation mark and then use it to move on. It isn't as if they will be at the same standard at 8yrs or 11yrs. It is much easier, once they have understood it,to say 'now we can look at better ways of building up suspense, shock etc.' I have taught year1 and year6 on the same day and it isn't easy to go straight from one to the other, because they are so different.
I often think that we burden young children with too much, too soon. I would just get them writing and once they could write a decent amount, with exciting content, start on how to present it. Doing individual tuition with year 6 children was a real eye opener as to how they are failed.

So Chocs, if !!! makes one appear to be an excitable 10-year-old, is it an acceptable form of punctuation for an excitable 10-year-old who is just trying to express him-/herself?(!)

I think children should be taught to use the language and vocabulary at their disposal instead of leaving it to punctuation.

There are around 250,000 words in the English language. We don't need to do this - !!!! when we can use the right words to deliver drama. I won't even let my six year old use multiple exclamation marks. I say "find a different way to make it shocking/dramatic". Hiding behind !!!! looks lazy and is an example of poor language expression.

The child is 6 years old-coming across them for the first time-he has plenty of time to develop.It is far easier to teach other methods to a child that understands the exclamation mark, than one who doesn't. Lots of 6 yr olds never use one in the first place. (you are grateful if a lot of 6 yr olds even write in a sentence).

I'm not quite sure why ?! is consider so unacceptable? Personally, if I were reading aloud, I would find that a very useful clue to indicate the tone of voice required and would be quite happy with, ""You want your DC to be in a car crash with you?!" he said in a hugely shocked, disbelieving tone," to ""You want your DC to be in a car crash with you," he exclaimed in a hugely shocked, disbelieving tone. Sometimes, I really don't see why adding punctuation to confirm the tone of voice also described by the words you use is such a massive crime, whether on the internet or in a piece of creative writing. I can see the argument against it in formal, academic research, where nobody wants to admit to having any strong feelings about anything for fear of being accused of lacking objectivity, but otherwise, I think some of the views expressed on use of question marks and exclamation marks are just adding totally unnecessary complications to effective communication. And they don't relate to hard and fast rules, anyway, just to slightly outdated stylistic preferences.

I likewise do not object to occasional use of italics to indicate where the emphasis should go in a sentence. Writing is, after all, for communication, and to invent rules of punctuation and grammar which inhibit rather than enhance getting your point across in the manner in which you intended just seems a little bit pedantic to me.

I do also take great pleasure these days in starting sentences with an "And." I never knew I was so rebellious.

And I didn't proof read what I just wrote. 'tis the internet, after all.

My two seemed to 'get' exclamation marks very quickly. They use them exuberantly. The whole full stop/capital letter thing has pretty much passed them by. They are y1 and y3. I should be grateful they are using any punctuation I suppose but I fear the exclamation mark spatter gun technique will shortly be followed by a plethora of apostrophes. I agree with exotic - too much, too soon.

I have a child who has an innate sense and somewhat liberal use of the ellipsis...I don't know where he gets it from...

...He does, however, know on pain of death that it's only three dots...

I think every child should read Maskerade (sorry to harp on about Terry Pratchett) because the character called Christine just embodies everything that is wrong with incorrect punctuation.

Less is more.

What about this...

"Is this the end of the road for us?" she screamed, her finger nails scratching desperately to find a hold.

Would this not justify an exclamation mark at the end too (just the one mind you)?

Surely at ten you're learning about the structure of language not its nuances. I don't think abuse of punctuation is any more unrealistic than teaching children to paint with a cut up potato is. Children don't grow up thinking all art is created with diced vegetables.

I don't know ... www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2164511/Its-Leonardo-da-Veggie-Artist-Alon-Zaid-uses-fruit-veg-create-famous-masterpieces.html

wsgfl2.westsussex.gov.uk/aplaws/intergames/play/Arcumboldo.swf

I always think of Giuseppe Arcimboldo