Cut out all those exclamation marks. An exclamation mark is like laughing at your own jokes.
F. Scott Fitzgerald
EXCLAMATION POINT
The sign used in writing after an exclamation or interjections, expressing strong emotion or astonishment, or to indicate a command.
AVOID OVERUSE!
An exclamation point is used to express strong emotion.
No! he yelled. Do it now!
An exclamation point may be used to close questions that are meant to convey extreme emotion.
What on earth are you doing! Stop!
An exclamation point can be inserted within parentheses to emphasize a word within a sentence.
We have some really(!) cool tattoos on sale this week.
Note that there is no space between the last letter of the word so emphasized and the parentheses. This device should be used rarely, if ever, in formal text.
An exclamation point will often accompany mimetically produced sounds.
All night long, the dogs woof! in my neighbors yard.
The bear went Grr!, and I went left.
If an exclamation point is part of an italicized or underlined title, make sure that the exclamation point is also italicized or underlined:
My favorite book is, Oh the Places Youll Go!
(Do not add a period after such a sentence that ends with the titles exclamation mark. The exclamation point will also suffice to end the sentence.) If the exclamation point is not part of a sentence-ending title, dont italicize the exclamation point.
Ive asked you not to sing la Marseillaise!
Capital Community College Foundation
Guide to Grammar and Writing
For information about usage of the exclamation point, click here
to consult one of the many style books listed on the Resources page
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