Advanced Spelling Lesson

kchuskey wrote: »

itsthehumidity wrote: »

kchuskey wrote: »

itsthehumidity wrote: »

kchuskey wrote: »

itsthehumidity wrote: »

cjferguson40 wrote: »

The OP is right.
Stop defending bad Engrish!

We are but a ragged few against an army of those armed to the teeth with excuses and logical fallacies.

SPARTANS! WHAT IS YOUR PROFESSION?!

Some writers will use both a question mark and exclamation point for an exclamatory question, but only the exclamation point is truly necessary. Correct: WHAT IS YOUR PROFESSION!


Fixed that for you.

Thanks bud. I actually wasn't comfortable with the ?! but it seemed like the most correct choice, as it was an exclamatory question. But, I like what you said better, and I appreciate the correction/input.

Is there ever a time when the ?! choice is actually more appropriate to use, or can the rule of using just ! be bluntly applied?

The exclamation point is a mark of terminal punctuation. As such, it should not be followed by a period or question mark. If You absolutely feel the need to include both, there is a punctuation mark that combines the question mark and exclamation point. It is called the interrobang, or interabang, and it looks like this ‽. Yet, for reasons already explained, it is hardly needed.

But, I didn't follow the exclamation mark with anything. It was preceded by the question mark. So, by what you're saying, ?! should be fine, as the ! is still terminal.

I think if you ask the experts who would claim that they know what the “correct” way to punctuate something is, they would tell you that a sentence may only have one terminal punctuation mark—that is to say, neither “?!” nor “!?” is correct.