OMG! What's the Deal?
Submitted by jbdrydenco on Wed, 04/09/2008 - 08:19
This is one in a series of articles on punctuation and grammar
The other marks of terminal punctuation are the exclamation mark (or point) and the question mark.
Honestly, I am not a proponent of the exclamation mark in any sort of abundance. In other words, use them sparingly. In technical writing, I don't think the exclamation mark should be used at all; in fact, I'd cut every instance of it in any piece I received. It looks unprofessional, and it does nothing to enhance the text. In fiction, it's only good in dialog, and only when it's not followed be a dialog tag.
Ex.
“Shut up,” John yelled
vs.
“Shut up!”
With question marks, it's a little different. Everyone uses questions, so they're a bit more common and can be used more liberally. I have a few thoughts on their use in dialog, but I won't go into that here.
As a general rule, the question mark goes within the quotation marks in dialog (ex. “Where is the store?”). If you're writing a question within text – say in technical writing – then you italicize it.
Ex.
The question, When is it appropriate to use colloquialisms in journalism?, is a common one.
These are both fairly simple, too. If you have questions on usage, please ask in the comments. We'll now be moving into more complicated items; those that give people more problems than ending a sentence correctly.
This is one in a series of articles on punctuation and grammar
Table of Contents:
- Grammar. Yes. Grammar: An introductory post on the series
- That's It. Period: A post on the full stop.
- Commas, Commas, Commas: A post on the use of commas
- You Say Potato; I Say Potato: A post on semi-colons
Comments
I firmly believe that using an exclamation point is nearly always a sign of weak writing. I worked with a nice reporter for a while who would use two or three in every story she wrote. When I asked her why she said it made the sentence "more exciting!"
However, I think the exclamation point is more of a typographic element to most people than an instrument of punctuation. Since we are, by and large, a people moved by visual stimuli, in this case, I think that the exclamation point is far more effective at creating excitement than good writing.
So, it depends on what your motivation is, then: Are you looking to create an emotion or good writing?
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