Exclamation Points

How to Use Exclamation Points

An exclamation point is used to show strong emphasis or importance.

• Example: “Put down the box!” the woman yelled.

Ordinarily, we would use a comma to separate out the words that say who says a quote (a signal tag).  However, a comma is not used next to an exclamation point.

Exclamation points are rarely used in research writing.  When it is used in a direct quote, only one exclamation point is used.  Don’t add additional exclamation points to be more emphatic.

• Correct: Stop!
• Incorrect: Stop!!