Communities

Writing
Writing
Codidact Meta
Codidact Meta
The Great Outdoors
The Great Outdoors
Photography & Video
Photography & Video
Scientific Speculation
Scientific Speculation
Cooking
Cooking
Electrical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Judaism
Judaism
Languages & Linguistics
Languages & Linguistics
Software Development
Software Development
Mathematics
Mathematics
Christianity
Christianity
Code Golf
Code Golf
Music
Music
Physics
Physics
Linux Systems
Linux Systems
Power Users
Power Users
Tabletop RPGs
Tabletop RPGs
Community Proposals
Community Proposals
tag:snake search within a tag
answers:0 unanswered questions
user:xxxx search by author id
score:0.5 posts with 0.5+ score
"snake oil" exact phrase
votes:4 posts with 4+ votes
created:<1w created < 1 week ago
post_type:xxxx type of post
Search help
Notifications
Mark all as read See all your notifications »
Q&A

Post History

77%
+5 −0
Q&A Ending a line of dialogue with "?!": Allowed or obnoxious?

It's acceptable, but should be reserved for rare occasions where it's absolutely necessary to keep the flow of the scene going. Overuse of this type of punctutation would indeed make your writing l...

posted 4y ago by Secespitus‭  ·  edited 4y ago by Secespitus‭

Answer
#2: Post edited by user avatar Secespitus‭ · 2019-12-19T22:59:18Z (over 4 years ago)
  • It's acceptable, but should be reserved for rare occasions where it's absolutely necessary to keep the flow of the scene going. Overuse of this type of punctutation would indeed make your writing look childish. As other answers have already outlined it's something that's becoming more common, but is still used very rarely and only in certain kinds of writing. If you are writing something that takes itself very seriously you should probably avoid it wherever possible and try to come up with something else. It's perfetly fine to use it rarely in caricatural writing, but for something that tries to be serious you are better off trying to find a different way of expressing what your characters feel. For example in your example you could instead try to rephrase it to something like "I can't believe this! How could you fire all three of them? Are you out of your mind?" - by starting with a sentence with an exclamation mark you show that the character is currently screaming, which makes it easier for the reader to know that the following questions are most likely not asked in a soothing low voice.
  • It's acceptable, but should be reserved for rare occasions where it's absolutely necessary to keep the flow of the scene going. Overuse of this type of punctutation would indeed make your writing look childish. As other answers have already outlined it's something that's becoming more common, but is still used very rarely and only in certain kinds of writing. If you are writing something that takes itself very seriously you should probably avoid it wherever possible and try to come up with something else. It's perfectly fine to use it rarely in caricatural writing, but for something that tries to be serious you are better off trying to find a different way of expressing what your characters feel. For example in your example you could instead try to rephrase it to something like "I can't believe this! How could you fire all three of them? Are you out of your mind?" - by starting with a sentence with an exclamation mark you show that the character is currently screaming, which makes it easier for the reader to know that the following questions are most likely not asked in a soothing low voice.
#1: Initial revision by user avatar Secespitus‭ · 2019-12-19T11:59:13Z (over 4 years ago)
It's acceptable, but should be reserved for rare occasions where it's absolutely necessary to keep the flow of the scene going. Overuse of this type of punctutation would indeed make your writing look childish. As other answers have already outlined it's something that's becoming more common, but is still used very rarely and only in certain kinds of writing. If you are writing something that takes itself very seriously you should probably avoid it wherever possible and try to come up with something else. It's perfetly fine to use it rarely in caricatural writing, but for something that tries to be serious you are better off trying to find a different way of expressing what your characters feel. For example in your example you could instead try to rephrase it to something like "I can't believe this! How could you fire all three of them? Are you out of your mind?" - by starting with a sentence with an exclamation mark you show that the character is currently screaming, which makes it easier for the reader to know that the following questions are most likely not asked in a soothing low voice.