Look! Exclamation points are everywhere! In personal emails! In texts! In business email subject lines! In business email newsletters! In business correspondence! They are even burgeoning on websites!!!

Believe it or not, this trend has not gone un-noticed. Just Google “overuse of exclamation marks” and you’ll find a healthy conversation going between those who resist and those who accept this movement.

Those who lament the proliferation believe we should stick to the traditional grammar rules and reserve exclamation points for expressing strong emotion or astonishment, or indicating a command. They quote Strunk and White, for example: “Do not attempt to emphasize simple statements by using a mark of exclamation. ‘It was a wonderful show!’ vs ‘It was a wonderful show.’ The exclamation mark is to be reserved for use after true exclamations or commands. ‘What a wonderful show!’ ‘Halt!'” And The Chicago Manual of Style: “An exclamation point (which should be used sparingly to be effective) marks an outcry or an emphatic or ironic comment.”

On the other side are those who believe that this increased use of exclamation points is a natural adaptation of the written language to our use of electronic communications as conversation. A recent Boston Globe article quoted Lera Boroditsky, Associate Professor of Cognitive Science at UCSD, as saying, “People are using the written word in a much more conversational manner… What people do with written language is that they adapt it to meet their needs.” In the same article, Jean Berko Gleason, a Boston University psycholinguist, commented “[Exclamation points] can mitigate the brusqueness of a brief reply by indicating the writer’s enthusiasm, sincerity, surprise ­- it all depends on the situation.”

Using Exclamation Points in Business Communications

In the grand scheme of things, the overuse of exclamation marks is not high on the list. But we’re curious. What about you? How do you use exclamation points in your business communications?

Whether you limit your use of exclamation marks or embrace them when texting or emailing among friends and family, we believe that it’s better to not go overboard when communicating on behalf of your business. I once received a promotional email from a company that ended every sentence with an exclamation mark, from the subject line (there were actually two exclamation marks there) down to the signature (“From Our Team!”). I didn’t read it!

This is not a new debate, it’s just one that is taking place around a new medium. We leave you with this Seinfeld clip from the 1980s (“Seinfeld and the Sniffing Accountant”).

Ok, one more (same episode!).