Answer: How many exclamation marks are too many?

[green_grrl]

One of our readers asks, “How many exclamation marks are too many? What is the standard usage on number of exclamation marks in a sentence or on a page?”

This sounds like a question born in the era of OMG!!!!!1!!1eleventy!, but questions around overuse of exclamation marks-or exclamation points in American English-have been around for much longer

Comments

[heartofoshun]

Good job! I use a lot of exclamation points horsing around online also, but it is nice to have a reminder of the purpose of punctuation and what is effective and what is counter-productive. Thanks!

[green_grrl]

It's so easy to overuse them these days. I often go back through my emails and take half of them out before sending!

[china_shop]

This is great -- thanks! :-)

[green_grrl]

Thanks for reading-and commenting with an exclamation mark! ;-)

[starwatcher307]

.
Oddly, I often notice the lack of exclamation points. Too often I see things like, "No," he shouted. Or, "Don't do that," he snapped. For the words to sound like shouting or snapping in my head, the exclamation point needs to be present.
.

[green_grrl]

What kind of monster doesn't use exclamation points!

[starwatcher307]

[morethanmending]

LOL, I love this article, and not just because I am now hyper-aware of how often I use exclamation marks in my commenting. ;) It's a good sort of awareness, though. I have a bad habit of tossing punctuation willy-nilly into my writing.

Thanks for the fun info!

[green_grrl]

It took people pruning mine in editing for me to say, "Oh, maybe I do need to pay attention...." :D