Attempted Robbery In Cape Town
ChatterBank0 min ago
Hi,
When writing fiction dialogue and someone asks a question that is more of a statement of exasperation than a genuine query, should you use an exclamation mark or question mark? Or both?
I know both is not usually considered correct, but when what you have written is neither, yet both, it seems like, well, why not?
The dialogue is about someone being made to do something they don't want to because they have made other plans. It's an 11 year old, who doesn't want to go on holiday as she has planned a dirty tricks campaign and is saying to herself 'how can I harass bob, if i'll be in scotland for four weeks' in exasperation, as she knows she has to go on the holiday.
Any ideas, rules, tips?
thanks
No best answer has yet been selected by joko. Once a best answer has been selected, it will be shown here.
For more on marking an answer as the "Best Answer", please visit our FAQ.I would definitely use a question mark in the circumstances you outline. It is never correct to use both '?' and '!' That's a shame, I know, and simply restates the need for the 'interrobang' which is a combination thereof.Click here to see what an interrobang looks like. It does not officially �exist', of course, but there are many situations in which this combined question mark/exclamation mark would be very useful.
"Sometimes, especially in popular writing, the two are combined for emphasis." ('The two' refers to question marks and exclamation marks.)
The above quote is from Fowler's 'Modern English Usage' - the bible of usage - so I was definitely being over-emphatic when I used the word 'never' in my earlier response, for which I apologise.
However, I would still advise restraint in using any such piece of punctuation. Note the words 'sometimes' and 'popular' in the above quote. They suggest that - even if you are writing for 'The Sun' - such a thing should be a rarity!
In my experience, 11 year-old girls frequently use the tone you refer to, Joko, but I'd advise you to be most sparing of what we might call the "split interrobang". Personally, I would never use it.
Thanks for replying everyone
mibn2cweus - haha! Yeah, i think that's what i'll have to do - seems simplest.
Unfortunately, this kid is the sort who speaks in that way a lot - so I'll end up with an extra few thousand words on my word count - all of them "she eclaimed in exasperation!"...joko exclaimed in exasperation!...LOL!