punctuation

[joko]

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

[Quizmonster]

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.

[jno]

with extreme hesitation, I disagree with QM here. Statements that are both exclamations and queries can quite reasonably have both, in whichever order you choose. (Chess notation has long used both, for a move which seems both brilliant and dangerous.) The use of both isn't common, but that sort of sentence isn't common either, which is probably why. QM might say 'Are you mad?!' but I'd say 'Go for it!'

[Quizmonster]

"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.

[mibn2cweus]

�How can I harass Bob, if I�ll be in Scotland for four weeks?� she exclaimed in exasperation!

[joko]

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!

 

[Quizmonkey]

I basically agree with QMonster but, as a writer, I confess I have succumbed to the "?!" on rare occasions: there are times when it describes the speaker/speech/context better than anything else.

The suggestion by mibn2 is wrong: it isn't the narration that is an exclamation, but the direct speech. You'd be confusing the voices.

[Hides]

Needs question makr only.

'How can I harass Bob, if I'll be in Scotland for four weeks -?'

If she is talking to herself you might want to put the sentence in italics to show she is not speaking loud.

or:

'How can I harass Bob -? I'll be in Scotland for four weeks -!'

Hides