For others though, there is a far more serious matter at hand: the inability to effectively convey sarcasm in one’s messages. This may be a less high brow dilemma, but it is a real problem nonetheless, as anybody who has been forced to apologise for a tongue-in-cheek email will confirm.

The SarcMark

Now a US company has devised an ingenious solution - a new piece of punctuation called the ‘SarcMark’, which takes the form of a swirly line with a dot in the centre. Designed to be used in the same way as an exclamation mark or a question mark, this new symbol adds a sarcastic tone to the sentence that precedes it.

The SarcMark can be downloaded for $1.99 and installed onto any Windows 7, Vista or XP computer. It can then be used in an email or MSN message by pressing Ctrl and the full stop key. Macs and certain mobile phones are also supported.

It is hard to know how serious the Michigan-based inventors are about this new concept, although there is a conspicuous lack of SarcMarks in their web site copy. To find out more, why not visit: www.sarcmark.com

For the record, we have downloaded and tested this new symbol and can confirm that it works as described. In fact, we don’t know how we ever lived without it