Exclamation Points! Woo!

Exclamation points are probably one of the most misused and overused punctuation errors, besides commas. I know that in texting I tend to overuse the exclamation point ridiculously, and sometimes it carries on to my emails and papers. I tend to use an exclamation point when I’m really excited about something even though it’s a complete sentence that requires a period.

I think an easy tip about exclamation points is to use them sparingly. It is generally not professional to use these when writing emails to managers, but in certain circumstances it can be acceptable.

Some tips to remember when using exclamations points is to always place the exclamation point inside the parentheses when quoting someone if it is part of that person’s excitement. For example, if you are trying to quote someone who thought something was absolutely disgusting you would quote it as such: “That is so gross!” she shouted. Now, the only exception to this rule is if the sentence already includes quotations, but the statement is not emphasized. For example, if you are really excited about the book you read last weekend you might quote it like this: Man, I really loved reading “The Shining”! 

See, super easy rules. Oh! Another thing to remember when using exclamation points is to never add a comma or a period after the exclamation point when quoting someone. When you end the statement with the mark and add the parenthesis the sentence is complete and does not need a comma before saying “she said.”