 Noticing Newbies: May 10, 2017 Issue [#8279] |
  Noticing Newbies
This week: Donuts & Exclamation Points Edited by: Brooke  
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“New mysteries. New day. Fresh doughnuts.”
― David Lynch
Like donuts, exclamation points are awesome, but only in moderation. When you indulge too much, you'll end up looking bad. So, let's take a look at what we know about the amazing exclamation mark.
This particular punctuation mark is supposed to be used ‘to show strong emotion (“I won the lottery!”) or urgency (“Save me!”). One thing that some people don't think about is the fact that punctuation helps your writers to read your work. It seems obvious but you'd be surprised how many people I've told that to that didn't understand. Just like the comma tells your reader to pause, the exclamation point changes the voice in your reader's head.
Typically, exclamation points are placed at the end of a sentence to express extreme emotion.
 Excitement:
I won a new house!
 Horror:
That doll just moved!
 Urgency:
Get out!
 Protest:
No, I won't sign it!
There are sometimes when writers who are moved to use more than one exclamation point. There is no reason to do this. Punctuation doesn't convey emotion, words do. If you want to convey more emotion and you think your sentence needs more than one exclamation mark, you're using the wrong words. How else can you express intensified emotion? One way is by adding more description to the rest of the sentence.
Example:
“I won a new house!” my best friend exclaimed.
“I won a new house!” my best friend shouted, jumping up and down.
Mixed Punctuation
Instead of using multiple exclamation points, some writers will use mixed punctuation such as a question mark with an exclamation point to signify confusion and excitement together. While you may be surprised to hear this, that is acceptable to some as a non-standard punctuation mark called the Interrobang or the "interrogative point". I still maintain though, there is no true need for mixed punctuation if you use the correct words. Though, I do like the name I admit.  Here are some other lesser known punctuation marks.SarcMark was a short-lived punctuation mark that I thought would for sure catch on, but apparently I was wrong. It went by way of the The Irony Mark which only lives on in the pages of Wikipedia. Do you know any others you'd like to share? Write me in the comments. I'd love to hear from you. 
Write and Review on! ~ Brooke
 " Shady Characters is an authoritative, witty, and fascinating tour of the history and rationale behind such lesser known marks as the ampersand, manicule, the pilcrow, and the interrobang. Keith Houston also explains the octothorpe―otherwise known as the hashtag―and my final comment on his book is #awesome.”
(Ben Yagoda, author of How to Not Write Bad)
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I received some wonderful feedback to my last newsletter [#8232] "The Many Lives of the Ellipses" and I'm proud to share it with you.
From Merry QPdoll 
I had never heard of Terminal Points before until this newsletter. Love it. I learn so many things!
I'm so glad you found it helpful.  Thanks for writing in.
From the Wordy Jay 
Love the lesson on punctuation!
You're welcome. I'm glad you found it useful and interesting. :)
From Jeff 
I'm a terrible over-user of ellipses, mostly when I want to indicate a pause in a sentence. I always feel like semicolons are too formal and commas aren't always the best choice... and I end up using an ellipsis like  that. Bad Jeff!
I think we're all guilty of it at times. It's a problem I still have to be conscious of at times. Keep at it!
From QueenOwl ~ A New Day Dawns via email.
Great article. Wrong application of ellipsis is a common infraction we see for beginning writers. I refer to The Writer's Digest Grammar Desk Reference for my source of information and guidance.
The only time there is a fourth dot to an ellipsis is if one or more words are deleted from a quotation positioned at the end of the hosting sentence. In such a case, both period and ellipsis are used if the quoted matter is a grammatically complete sentence. No blank space will precede the period.
Thanks for a great teach!
You are exactly right. Thank you so much for writing in. I'm glad you enjoyed the article.
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