"The period can feel so emphatic as to sound sarcastic. It can easily come across as passive-aggressive." Exclamation marks, however, "convey warmth and sincerity; failing to use them runs the risk of making the person you are messaging feel uncertain and anxious."
What. Nonsense. The kind of nonsense that makes one feel uncertain and anxious.
To some writers punctuation is king; it rules the pauses between the tumble of words, providing shape, enriching meaning. It's not about pandering to either warm or anxious "feelings" of readers. Martialing meaning is the whole point of the period (note the Latin for point: punctus).
In British grammar the period is called a "full stop" because "to stop" comes from the Old English verb meaning "to stuff up or block". Drains for instance, and road traffic, get stopped at punctuated points of blockage. In prose these pauses are no bad thing. (It's handy in speaking too if you wish to stop for breath -- and don't you hate those people who talk in breathless! exclamation! marks!?) Only in a weather report is that okay (Warning! Snowstorm on highway!) Although maybe we also need a Bad Grammar signal: Warning! Illiteracy Ahead!
The comma too is essential, this word has Greek ancestry: "komma". Commas close off a clause with the "least degree of separation" (compared to the period or semi-colon which separate more decisively). With "clause" we're back to Latin and closing off: claudere is "to shut".
So at the risk of making ourselves "feel uncertain and anxious" let's champion the full use of punctuation by everyone punctilious about the points they're making when they write. Of course, "texting" is something else, neither speech nor writing, and nothing to do with actual texts. "Text" also derives from Latin, textura meaning "relating to arrangement of threads, as in fabric, skin, rock, and literary work".
So if you're saying anything beyond "me grunt, you snort" you need to arrange your threads of meaning, points, clauses, sentences and paragraphs according to punctuation. And if that idea makes you passive-aggressively anxious, just wait 'til we examine the role of the hyphen …
