THE OLD MAN moved slowly out of the darkness. ‘Hey! Stop! It’s me! Don’t shoot!’ Greg peered into the gloom and lowered his gun. It was his father!
Exclamation marks – or ‘shrieks’, as they’re known in the newspaper business – are perfectly acceptable in speech. None of those four short exclamations would make sense without them.
But the final exclamation mark isn’t in reported speech, it’s in the main body of the text. And it’s a sure sign of an amateur writer. Using an exclamation mark is like holding up an ‘applause’ sign to an audience. Don’t do it!
Incidentally…
There are only two places in the UK that include an exclamation mark in their names. One is Westward Ho!, a town in Devon; the other is Tally Ho!, an area of north London on the 134 bus route.
