It's ugly and it serves no purpose other than to tell me you can't write a sentence.

What it it?

The not-so-humble exclamation mark. Using too many suggests you are trying to shout at your reader rather than talk to them. And using them with a question mark- !!?! - is just overkill.

Here's a conversation between Dean Koontz and an overenthusiastic fan:

FAN: 'OH, MY GOSH, I AM YOUR BIGGEST FAN!!! YOU ROCK!! YOU HAVE GIVEN ME SO MANY THRILLS AND SO MUCH EXCITEMENT OVER THE YEARS. THANK YOU!! I HAVE VERY STRANGE DREAMS WHICH MY HUSBAND BLAMES ON YOUR BOOKS. I WAS WONDERING IF YOU HAVE EVER GOTTEN AN IDEA FOR A NOVEL FROM A DREAM? HOW DID YOU COME UP WITH THE IDEA FOR INTENSITY? I WAS SCARED TO DEATH READING IT! THANKS AGAIN FOR ALL THE HOURS OF WONDERFUL READING!!'

DEAN KOONTZ : I have several pieces of advice, and because I care for you, I want you to listen carefully. First, massive amounts of caffeine taken with steroids and methamphetamine makes a deadly combination. Second, your husband is obviously a bad influence. Third (and this is not generally known), when we are born, we are granted by God a specific number of exclamation points. When we use them up, it is our time to go. As for getting an idea from a dream-it has never happened to me. Indeed, when I’m working on fiction, I rarely have dreams. I only dream when I’m between book projects. And thanks for your enthusiasm!!!!!!! (Don’t worry, I’ve got tens of thousands of exclamation points remaining in my allotment.)

To get rid of exclamation marks simply go to the find and replace section of your word document. In find, type in a !. The number you have used will come up and then you can go through them one by one, replacing them with a full stop or rewriting the sentence to make it work without the !.

There. Done. No more exclamation marks!

Like Dean Koontz, I've still got a few left in my lifetime's supply.

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