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- - Close Punctuation
- Introduction to Punctuation
- Spacing
- The Period, Main purpose
- Imperatives, exclamations and indirect questions
- Ellipsis points
- Leaders
- Other uses
- Periods properly omitted
- The Question Mark, Main purpose
- Requests, indirect questions and other uses
- The Exclamation Mark, Main purpose
- The Exclamation Mark, Miscellaneous
- The Comma, General
- Restrictive/non-restrictive
- The Comma, Co-ordinate elements
- Clarity and emphasis
- Omitted words
- Quotations, etc.
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- The Semicolon, Between independent clauses
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- Misuse and overuse
- The Colon, Between independent clauses
- Annunciatory function
- The Colon, Miscellaneous
- Misuse
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- Use
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- The Em Dash, General
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- The En Dash, Numerals
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7.11 The Exclamation Mark, Main purpose
The exclamation mark is an intensifier. It is used to indicate surprise, urgency, finality and the like. It is most often found after interjections, but also after ellipses, contractions and inversions and after certain onomatopoeic words:
- Crash! went the filing cabinet.
but
- The crash of the filing cabinet was heard far down the hall.
Sometimes the exclamation mark is used to convey a special intonation that the reader would not give the words if they were punctuated normally:
- And I thought he was joking!
The exclamation mark is also used after forceful requests, wishes, invocations and commands:
- Would that I could!
- Follow my white plume!
—Sir Wilfrid Laurier
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