“Great.” and “Great!” have two vastly different meanings in modern America. This is only a problem in written form due to their spoken forms (the original vs. sarcastic use) and because of the implied voice of the full stop vs. the exclamation point.
I observed this apparency* while writing an email in a casual-yet-not-informal context. “Awesome.” has the read connotation I was looking for, but the word was too informal for the situation. “Great.” was what came next; it was only upon re-reading the email that I realized the problem. Instead of finding another appropriate word I decided to save time and go with the potentially overly affective* exclamation point.
- ah, see, I still manage two words of the day