Can you end a question with an exclamation mark!

Oh it’s very much a quagmire, though it can be a fun one. Yup, glad you see it that way, I’m not challenging what you’re partial to either, in case that wasn’t clear. Interpretation is a very individual thing after all.

I would say that even if it could be interpreted as demanding, the intentions behind the question could be anything from malice to distress. As for choice, it would add pressure to the question but I don’t really see the choice changing from if the question was asked with a lower tone. For instance, even a low voice could be menacing depending on tone. Regardless of tone, the person being asked still has the choice of answering, lying, stalling, not responding etc. Though obviously the attitude of the person being asked could change and thus they might go with something they wouldn’t have chosen had they been asked in a different manner.

As for the example in your second post, what you’re doing is technically adding variables to the mix. You have identified the hypothetical asker to be the boss of the person being asked, which obviously adds the whole previously existing relationship into the mix. Not to mention there’s the personality of the person being asked to consider, but all that’s more on the motivational side other than that of grammar, I think you would agree.

That being said; “Pass me the tea-kettle would you.” Is indeed some sort of neutral question/demand/request that politeness/cultural pressure dictates that we follow without much of a choice, although we could perhaps pretend we didn’t hear. Or fling our feces at them. So the choice is still technically there. Not to mention it would change the narrative dramatically, as is the case with punctuation.

But I don’t really feel that there are any hard rules on the matter other than the obvious ones, so agree to disagree on that. I wouldn’t think less of an author for using caps (if it was justified given the situation), the primary thing that would affect me and my reading is the flow of the sentences.

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That’s what I’d normally do except in this case, he’s about to beat the player up, empty his ammos on him, pull his teeth out, break his finger one by one, scratch his whole face off (at least that’s what he wants to do)

So it’s really enraged, and not “voice slighlty raised”. But just like you I’m picky on grammar and syntax, so I was in a dilemma.

I’m pretty sure however, oxcept for the narrator, you can do pretty much what you want with quoted dialogue, since you’re quoting how the characters/people are speaking.


“How about describing Josh’ facial expression, like
Josh looked menacingly at you: “Where did you put it?”, he yelled.” sounds great, it doesn’t sound like a yell but it does sound enraged - as if he tries keeping his rage inside (of course I’d have to rplace “he yelled” with something else) (that was JanThatsMe’s quote)


Anyways, finally quoting myself: “I decided I’ll o a mix between “Where is it? Tell me where it is!” and the use of “!?”” I’ll probably avoid !? and use “Tell me where it is!”



To everybody: I think it’s great everyone could share their opinion on this, I’m glad it sparked a discussion with so many opinions

Mostly, I just wanted to try and point out that a question or exclamation mark isn’t always needed. It all depends on the person asking and how something is said. It also depends on whether the text makes something clear, thus negating the need for added punctuation.

Really, that’s all.

But yeah, language is fun and glad you see it that way. I don’t claim to be perfect and I’m not sure anyone is, and there’s the fact that grammar can be subjective. Like, where I might put a comma, someone else might leave it out or put it elsewhere. Then there’s choices made for artistic reasons. I once wrote a brief piece, about 100 - 200 words maybe, where the language was broken. I was trying to capture the thought process of someone who might be a bit slow mentally, so thoughts and sentences were clipped.

For me, while the story is important, I do a lot of reading to study the technical aspects and styles. So I have quite a few books bought for that reason that I haven’t actually read. To put it into perspective, perhaps I’m too technically minded for my own good, especially when it comes to conciseness. Right now, I have notepad++ open, and I’m working on a Hosted Games project. It’s 1,680 words long currently and after I’ve finished the next two scenes, of five (the reader will only see 3), the chapter will be over. I imagine I’ll lose a fair bit in word count too and for a interactive story with the branching, it’s not really a high word count at all. But on the flip side, I try to make the most of what words I do use. And I find language itself very intriguing the way grammar can be twisted to suit a specific need. It’s sometimes like puzzle too, like how can I rephrase this so it says the same but uses less words, or has a bigger impact?

There’s no worry as well about whether or not you were challenging what I was partial to. I never thought that for a moment and I hope you didn’t take what I said the wrong way. I’d like to try and explain where I’m coming from though, even though it’s likely not necessary.

For me, writing is a craft. Something honed over years of work. During my time on writing forums, I used to spend a lot of time critiquing the technical aspects, because I feel that is less subjective than the content. I’d run across things like:

“Go.” he said. (There, it’s either “Go.” or “Go,” he said.)

That sort of thing, you know? It makes me ask if the writer has picked up a book before, because I don’t know of any books where that’s the grammatical norm. It could be that it’s normal in other countries, but in the UK and America, I know it’s not the norm, which is all I’m aware of.

So really, whether right or wrong, it just makes me think the writer hasn’t taken their time to hone their craft and such when I see things that don’t look right and I can’t see a good reason for it. Like I said, it’s not how I’d write it, but I can at least understand the rationale behind ‘?!’ It saves words at the end of the day. (As an aside, I’m well aware I made a mistake ‘I think people should make their writing speak for themselves without adding a lot of needless punctuation marks too.’ in an earlier post. :wink: )

Anyhow, you got me going, as I love discussing the technical aspects of writing. Sorry everyone! :wink: And hopefully I’ll be able to show that work soon.

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Well, for my money, I said I wouldn’t be against ?! as I can understand the rationale behind it, though I wouldn’t necessarily use it myself. It saves using the words ‘he yelled’ if you can’t make it clear any other way in the text or you think it’s needed for clarity.

But what I’d consider are a few non-perfect examples:

“Where did you put it!” he screamed.

Josh grabbed him by the collar and shook him, “Where did you put it!” Spit was flying. (You could substitute the ! for a ? in my view for either example, because it’s kind of a question, yet not. I wouldn’t say either is wrong, and it’s clear that the person is yelling.)

I wouldn’t do this to save words, I don’t mind words, I mind the effect and the immersion it has on the reader.

“Stay away from me!” doesn’t have the same impact as “Stay away from me,” he screamed with anger" (that’s basically what happens with a question - if it were a declarative sentence instead of a question, it’d be using a period instead of an exclamation mark, and then letting the reader know “by the way, this was an angry scream”)