Exclaiming Points

It could be that we believe we're sharing information so important that we want to shout it. It might be that we want to gain attention in a cluttered info-environment. It may be that it is easier to input an exclamation point than it is to clearly explain what we are excited about--but the proliferation of the exclamation point in writing is hard to overlook. In grading writing assignments, advice to students seems fairly simple: Show, don't tell. Let your words, your descriptions and your detail do the work of gaining others' attention. Don't rely on the punctuation mark to do so. My hunch is that we like the exclamation point because it uses the same key on a qwerty keyboard as the number 1, and it looks a lot like a capital I. Whether it is convenience or habit that leads to its overuse, trust your readers. They can get the point--without the point.