I’m drowning in a metaphorical sea of exclamation points.

I fear the full stop is slowly being phased out by the aggressive and grammatically ambiguous use of exclamation points. At the risk of being perceived as over-dramatic, I dream of a world in which every full stop achieves the right to continued existence, protection, improvement and participation in prose.

This means ensuring that full stops do not die out from preventable use of exclamation points, that they have the opportunity to feature throughout text and that they have - and understand - their rights as a full stop.

But what will we do with all of the exclamation points?

I am not suggesting the abolishment of exclamation points entirely.  They can be useful for turning a sentence into a strong command or when capturing an emotional outburst in text that is literary dialog or personal expressive writing, such as an email. For example:
- Shock: "I can’t believe you used the exclamation point in your resume!"
- Excitement: "Oh my God! I didn’t see one exclamation point in the entire report!"
- Urgency: "Be careful when using exclamation points! Consider using a full stop! If you don't, you could hurt the feelings of others!”
- Vehemence: "Down with the exclamation point!"
- Astonishment: "I just can't believe what she's done! It's simply incorrect!"

If you are going to use an exclamation point, it is very important that you use them in a grammatically sound manner. Here are a few tips:

• Do not use a full stop after an exclamation point occurring in the end of a sentence, even if followed by quotation marks.
• If you are using an exclamation point with other visual aids, such as capital letters, boldface or italic type (again, this should be done sparingly) ensure it receives the same formatting.
• When an exclamation point follows a quoted text, put it before the closing quotation mark if it applies just to the quoted text. Put the exclamation point outside the closing quotation mark if it applies to the entire sentence.
  -If only I could finally say "I've never seen an exclamation point used inappropriately" like I’ve always dreamed! [entire sentence is exclamatory]
  -"I didn’t see one exclamation point!" cried Kristine to her mother excitedly on the phone.[only quoted text is in exclamatory, no extra comma after an exclamation mark]

To drive this point home, do use it in stories and personal communication, but use it sparingly. Avoid where possible.

How do I avoid using an exclamation point?

It is highly inappropriate to put an exclamation point in formal pieces of writing such as a business resume, report, proposal or a scholarly article, as the style expected in these should be objective, standard, and informative.

Using an exclamation point in these formats creates an impression of unwarranted exaggeration, which in turn is perceived as clumsy, marketing oriented or immature. You can try using alternative wording or other punctuation marks to express emotion. Make your readers infer emotions by giving them context. For example;

Avoid: Her blog was amazing!!! Super-duper!!! She really knows how to write!
[Exaggerated enthusiasm using too many exclamation points]

Consider: Her blog emphasised the overuse of exclamations with style and prowess. It appears that she is highly professional.
[Subtle enthusiasm using alternative wording with full stops instead of exclamation points]

Of course, there are other contexts in which you can use exclamation points such as indicating rhetorical questions, and for drawing attention to unlikely points of information.  My advice would be to avoid them entirely.   Use your words.