User:Esmaquel1977/sandbox

A sentence ending in an exclamation mark may be an exclamation (such as "Wow!", "Boo!"), or an imperative ("Stop!"), or may indicate astonishment: "They were the footprints of a gigantic duck!" Exclamation marks are occasionally placed mid-sentence with a function similar to a comma, for dramatic effect, although this usage is obsolescent: "On the walk, oh! there was a frightful noise."[6] Informally, exclamation marks may be repeated for additional emphasis ("That's great!!!"), but this practice is generally considered unacceptable in formal prose.[7] The exclamation mark is sometimes used in conjunction with the question mark. This can be in protest or astonishment ("Out of all places, the squatter-camp?!"); a few writers replace this with a single, nonstandard punctuation mark, the interrobang, which is the combination of a question mark and an exclamation point. Again, this is informal. Overly frequent use of the exclamation mark is generally considered poor writing, for it distracts the reader and devalues the mark's significance. Cut out all those exclamation points. An exclamation point is like laughing at your own jokes. —F. Scott Fitzgerald Some authors, however, most notably Tom Wolfe, are known for unashamedly liberal use of the exclamation mark. In comic books, the very frequent use of exclamation mark is common—see Comics, below. For information on the use of spaces after an exclamation mark, see the discussion of spacing after a full stop. One study has shown that women use exclamation marks more than men do