The purpose of this study is to investigate German native speakers' use of exclamation marks in L2 Danish texts by comparing their use to that of Danish and German native speakers respectively. The comparison thus aims to identify points of attention in L2 Danish writing. Writing skills in a foreign language include not only lexical, grammatical and textual knowledge, but also knowledge of the sociopragmatics in the foreign language. The norm-adequate use of the exclamation mark appears to embody such knowledge in several respects. As part of the exclamation as a rhetorical device, the exclamation mark serves to increase intensity in the text and accentuate the writer's emotional involvement in his text. At the same time, the exclamation mark also influences and affects the recipient. It thus has the function of an interactive sign. Based on a comparison of the standards in the two language systems and on speech act theory, the use of the sign is examined in e-mails and commentaries. The study shows that the use of the sign is genre dependent and that the L2 writers overuse the sign in the expressive and evaluative acts of expressing thanks and approval in the e-mails. In terms of didactic implications, the study draws attention to the formulaic language used in the co-text of the exclamation mark.