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punctuation in context
End Punctuation in Context
Most people think there
can't be much to say, that is interesting, about end punctuation.
The reading selections below challenge this notion. Kenneth
Wilson helps us understand why too much exclamation (hyperbole)
is a bad idea; John Suler explains how people use exclamation
marks in email communication; and Wikipedia.com, an online encyclopedia
"written collaboratively by volunteers from around the world,"
explains what a "tag question" is, and how many spaces are supposed
to go after a full stop before the start of the next sentence.
These articles will help you understand some of the subtleties involved
in using these punctuation tools effectively, and even creatively.
The Exclamation Mark:
Kenneth G. Wilson, The Columbia Guide to Standard American English
Hyperbole (hei-PUHR-buh-lee) is exaggeration for effect, a locution
that exaggerates or makes an extravagant statement: I’m so
tired, I’m just dead. Their center must be eight feet tall—a
monster. To be hyperbolic (the adjective, pronounced hei-puhr-BAHL-ik)
in speech is a characteristic frequently attributed to American
enthusiasm, and it can indeed make discourse lively and interesting.
But few peaks stand out in a mountain range full of peaks, and
too much hyperbole is like shouting all your conversations. Use
hyperbole sparingly.
Hello Sam. Thank you for the message you sent. I enjoyed it. I
didn't know that you felt that way. Let's talk more about it.
Hello Sam! Thank you for the message you sent. I enjoyed it!!
I didn't know that you felt that way. Let's talk more about it!
Hello Sam!! Thank you for the message you sent!! I enjoyed it!!!
I didn't know that you felt that way!!! Let's talk more about it!!!
How and when to use exclamation points is a bit of an art form.
Unless the sentiment of the sentence is clearly negative, they
tend to lighten up the mood. But like spice in cooking, there are
dangers of excess as well as omissions. Leaving out exclamation
points entirely - as in the first example above - may result in
a message that appears emotionally bland, ambiguous, maybe overly
serious. Without even a hint of enthusiasm, some people might wonder
if the sender is suppressing some hostility. On the other extreme,
too many exclamation points - as in the third example above - may
result in a message mood that seems contrived, shallow, or even
uncomfortably manic. A message peppered lightly with exclamations,
at just the right spots, can give the message a varying texture
of energy that emphasizes what needs to be emphasized. Of the three
examples above, the second best illustrates this.
Beware of subject headings written all in caps, embellished with
asterisks and exclamation points, or containing overly friendly
or seductive messages ("Just wanted to say hello...")
- especially when you don't recognize the sender's name. If it
looks and smells like spam, it's spam.
The Question Mark
"Tag Question" Wikipedia.com (for full article, visit Wikipedia.com)
In most languages, tag questions are more common in colloquial
spoken usage than in formal written usage. They can be an indicator
of politeness, emphasis, or irony. They may suggest confidence
or lack of confidence; they may be confrontational or tentative.
Some examples showing the wide variety of structure possible in
English are:
Open the window, will you?
She doesn't really want that, does she?
You'd better stop now, hadn't you?
The Period, or "full stop"
Spacing after a period (from "Full Stop," Wikipedia.com)
In typewritten texts and other documents printed in fixed-width
fonts, there is a convention among lay writers that two spaces
are placed after the full stop (along with the other sentence enders:
question mark and exclamation mark), as opposed to the single space
used after other punctuation symbols. This is sometimes termed "French
spacing."
In modern English-language typographical usage, debate has arisen
concerning the proper number of trailing spaces after a full stop
(or exclamation mark, or question mark) to separate sentences within
a paragraph. Whereas two spaces are still regarded by many outside
the publishing industry to be the better usage for monospace typefaces,
the awkwardness that most word-processing applications have in
representing correctly the 1.5 spaces that had previously become
standard for typographically proportional (non-monospace) fonts
has led to some confusion about how to render the space between
sentences using only word-processing tools.
Many descriptivists (i.e. people who describe how language is
used in practice) support the notion that a single space after
a full stop should be considered standard because it has been the
norm in mainstream publishing for many decades. This is supported
by the MLA, APA, and the The Chicago Manual of Style. . . . Many
prescriptivists (i.e. people who make recommendations for rules
of language use), meanwhile, adhere to the earlier use of two spaces
on typewriters to make the separation of sentences more salient
than separation of elements within sentences. Since current style
guides are founded on the consensus of practice, the evidence strongly
suggests that most people accept the single space in modern word-processing,
largely for the reason that two spaces may stretch inordinately
when full justification is applied. Additionally, many computer
typefaces are designed proportionately to alleviate the need for
the double space (the opposition would of course reply that this
does nothing to satisfy the aforementioned saliency issue). Most
widely accepted contemporary style guides categorically require
that only one space be placed after full stops and similar punctuation
marks, and they characterise modern practice as avoiding it.
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