Do you use an exclamation point? Do you use five or more? Is there really any limit to the number of exclamation points you can and should use?

Are you now wondering when you can’t use an exclamation point? Never fear—I am here to save the day.

1. Are You Writing a Highly Professional Email?
Professional emails can be a pain, can’t they? You’re always second-guessing yourself, and wondering if you should say one thing or another.

The one thing you shouldn’t second-guess is the use of an exclamation point. If you are writing a highly professional email, or even if you’re writing to a college professor about missing class, don’t use an exclamation point.

2. Are You Writing a Term Paper That Is 70 Percent of Your Grade?
Term papers are hard work, and you want every ounce of effort you put in to be appreciated. Whether the paper is 70 percent of your grade or only 20 percent, you still need to write it well and professionally.

As you write your term paper, you might just happen across some really exciting new information about the topic. Does this mean you can write about it and use tons of exclamation points to show how excited you are?

Nope.

Never use an exclamation point in your term paper—it could knock a few points off your overall grade.

3. Did You Already Use an Exclamation Point?
If you’re writing a blog post or something that isn’t highly professional, then you can use an exclamation point. But how do you know when you’ve used too many?

A great way is to read through and see if you’ve already used one—if you have, then you don’t need more. You’ll also notice that reading through your post or content will help immensely because you’ll start to realize that each place you put an exclamation point really didn’t need it.

Write Exciting Information. You Won’t Need a Billion Exclamation Points.

You don’t need to have exclamation points all throughout your content to convince people to be excited. Punctuation isn’t really going to impact them. However, when you write exciting content, people will read.

Get to work on some exciting information to share, and you are well on your way to creating content that will be enjoyable for every reader.

What are some of your experiences with the overuse of any punctuation mark?

Julia McCoy

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