<p>Welcome to episode 76 of Lexis which features Raj &amp; Dan (and guest interviewer &amp; friend of the pod, Amanda Cole) talking about gender and exclamation marks in digital communication with Yidan (Dani) Yin, Assistant Professor in the Department of Management and Organization at the Smeal College of Business, Penn State University and Dr Cheryl Wakslak, Associate Professor of Management and Organization at USC Marshall.</p><p>Their JESP (Journal of Experimental Social Psychology) paper (with Gil Appel): <em>Nice to meet you.(!) Gendered norms in punctuation usage</em> can be found here and is a fascinating read:  <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/397148363_Nice_to_meet_you_Gendered_norms_in_punctuation_usage"><u>https://www.researchgate.net/publication/397148363_Nice_to_meet_you_Gendered_norms_in_punctuation_usage</u></a> </p><p>We pick up on some of the media coverage of their paper and also reference Deborah Cameron’s blog about the paper and its coverage. </p><p>Financial Times coverage: <a href="https://archive.ph/cCOiL"><u>https://archive.ph/cCOiL</u></a> </p><p>The Guardian: <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/oct/28/exclamation-marks-why-do-women-use-them-three-times-as-much-as-men"><u>https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/oct/28/exclamation-marks-why-do-women-use-them-three-times-as-much-as-men</u></a> </p><p>London Evening Standard: <a href="https://www.standard.co.uk/comment/exclamation-marks-female-gender-norms-punctuation-b1255212.html"><u>https://www.standard.co.uk/comment/exclamation-marks-female-gender-norms-punctuation-b1255212.html</u></a> </p><p>Harvard Business Review: <a href="https://hbr.org/2025/09/dont-overthink-your-use-of-exclamation-points"><u>https://hbr.org/2025/09/dont-overthink-your-use-of-exclamation-points</u></a> </p><p>Deborah Cameron’s blog: <a href="https://debuk.wordpress.com/2025/11/06/enough-already-punctuation-silly-women-and-soundbite-science/"><u>https://debuk.wordpress.com/2025/11/06/enough-already-punctuation-silly-women-and-soundbite-science/</u></a> </p><p>We also mention Gretchen McCulloch’s thoughts on the full-stop: <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-49182824"><u>https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-49182824</u></a> </p><p>Dani Yin: <a href="https://sites.google.com/view/yidan-yin"><u>https://sites.google.com/view/yidan-yin</u></a> </p><p>Cheryl Wakslak: <a href="https://www.marshall.usc.edu/personnel/cheryl-jan-wakslak"><u>https://www.marshall.usc.edu/personnel/cheryl-jan-wakslak</u></a> </p><p>And then in our <strong>Lang in the News</strong> segment, Lisa, Jacky and Dan discuss more media tales of the woes of inclusive language and discuss some of these stories: </p><p><strong>‘Man the phones’ is offensive, insurers told</strong></p><p>Trade body accused of ‘pandering to woke dogma’ after issuing language guide advising against use of everyday terms</p><p><a href="http://archive.today/dLoSb"><u>http://archive.today/dLoSb</u></a> </p><p><strong>Health trust breached equality commitments over gender neutral language</strong></p><p><a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c9wvrl084g7o"><u>https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c9wvrl084g7o</u></a> </p><p><strong>Lexis is on Bluesky: </strong><a href="https://bsky.app/profile/lexispodcast.bsky.social"><strong>https://bsky.app/profile/lexispodcast.bsky.social</strong></a><strong> </strong></p><p><strong>Contributors</strong></p><p><em>Lisa Casey</em> </p><p>blog: <a href="https://livingthroughlanguage.wordpress.com/"><u>https://livingthroughlanguage.wordpress.com/</u></a> &amp; Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/LanguageDebates"><u>Language Debates (@LanguageDebates)</u></a></p><p><em>Dan Clayton</em> </p><p>blog: <a href="http://englishlangsfx.blogspot.com/"><u>EngLangBlog</u></a> &amp; Bluesky: <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/englangblog.bsky.social"><u>https://bsky.app/profile/englangblog.bsky.social</u></a> </p><p><em>Jacky Glancey</em> </p><p>Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/JackyGlancey"><u>https://twitter.com/JackyGlancey</u></a></p><p><em>Raj Rana</em></p><p><em>Matthew Butler </em></p><p>Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/MatthewbutlerCA"><u>https://twitter.com/MatthewbutlerCA</u></a> </p><p>Music: Serge Quadrado - Cool Guys </p><p>Cool Guys by Serge Quadrado is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. From the Free Music Archive: <a href="https://freemusicarchive.org/music/serge-quadrado/urban/cool-guys"><u>https://freemusicarchive.org/music/serge-quadrado/urban/cool-guys</u></a> </p><p><br></p>