March 23 2015

Exclamation Point!!!! #17

Today is my 23rd slice for the March Slice of Life Challenge on Two Writing Teachers.

slice-of-life_classroom-image-black

As I was innocently scrolling through Twitter, I found this tweet by Kelly Gallagher. He is an educator and author whom I respect greatly! His tweet:

I am often a bit wary of people who overuse exclamation points. Just sayin…

— Kelly Gallagher (@KellyGToGo) March 12, 2015

All said in good fun…in jest…but for some reason it stuck with me. It stuck with me as I commented on others blogs. It stuck with me as I composed emails. It stuck.

It stuck because…I am an overuser or exclamation points! I use them ALL the time! Sometimes, when I really get excited about something…I use multiple exclamation points!!!!!!!!!!!

As I was writing, I found myself resisting the call of the EP (exclamation point). I tried to use a period…BORING…or only one EP. I stopped and thought to myself, “Why? Why are you doing this?” We all have writing styles and we all make choices. I have no thoughts about you if you do not use EPs or if you use them “sparingly”…but for me…it’s BORING!!!

A few weeks ago I wrote about my love of the EP and how I’d discovered an old email from my Dad filled with EPs. It’s a connection to him.

Last week, I read aloud ! by Amy Krouse Rosenthal and Tom Lichtenheld to my students…

I feel like this book explains my love of the EP!!! Oh and my students loved it so much that I have a group writing the sequel…the EP and the question mark become best friends…they never leave each other’s side…The Interrobang!

It’s all love here for the exclamation point! Use as many as you like in your comments. It’s my 3rd favorite punctuation mark. 

  1. Interrobang
  2. Ellipsis
  3. Exclamation Point

What’s your favorite and why? 

Tags: , , ,
Copyright © 2017. All rights reserved.

Posted March 23, 2015 by Ms. Haseltine in category #SOLC, punctuation, read aloud

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*