Too many is worse than none
Here is a page from a story.
We went to the park! I brought my ball! The grass was wet! We played for an hour! Then we went home! It was fun!
Six sentences. Six exclamation points. By the third one you stop feeling anything.
An exclamation point works by standing out. If every sentence has one, none of them stands out, and the mark stops doing its job.
How the same story should look
We went to the park. I brought my ball. The grass was wet. We played for an hour. Then a big dog took my ball and ran off with it!
One exclamation point in six sentences. Now it lands. The reader knows exactly which moment mattered.
Most sentences you write are plain facts, and plain facts take periods.
One mark, not three
Some children add extra marks to add extra feeling.
“I found my hat!!!” is not correct. Three marks do not make the feeling three times bigger. They just look messy.
“I found my hat!” is correct. One end mark on every sentence, always.
An exclamation is still a sentence
Adding an exclamation point does not turn a piece of a sentence into a whole one.
“The wet grass!” has a naming part and no telling part, so it is still a fragment. The mark cannot fix that.
“The wet grass soaked my socks!” is a sentence, and now the mark has something to end.
Your turn
Which of these should end with a period?
- “Our class has music on Friday”
- “The fire alarm is ringing”
- “I have two pencils in my desk”
- “My tooth just fell out”
Check your answers
- Period. A plain fact.
- Exclamation point. Something is happening.
- Period. A plain fact.
- Exclamation point. That is big news when you are six.
Remember
- Save the exclamation point for what deserves it.
- One mark is enough. Never three.
- The mark does not turn a fragment into a sentence.