We are so excited to have Grammar Girl on Spark! Nora interviewed Mignon Fogarty about the overuse (!!!) of exclamation marks in online writing, including emails!
Mignon is a big star in the podcasting world, and she and Nora had a great yap about how to convey friendliness in an email without using exclamation marks. I’m glad to hear that the ! isn’t the worst sin you can commit in a professional email. That honour goes to the emoticon 
You can listen to the extended interview below, or download the MP3. An edited version of this chat will appear on the May 27 & 30 episode of Spark.
Play audio:
In the interview, Nora asks Mignon if we need a new punctuation to denote sarcasm in emails, since it’s sometimes hard to figure out what someone might really be trying to say.
That got us thinking about a contest for this week.
What new punctuation do you think we need? A sarcasm mark? An I’m-distracted-by-social-media mark? Add your idea in the comments below and we’ll enter your name into a draw for a Spark bag.
I think a rant warning is in order, as well as a sarcasm mark.
I think we need a mark for a shocked inquiry. I find it awkward to have to use a combination of exclamation and question marks.
Hi Rajio,
Someone beat you to it, apparently. In reading the background for this piece, I learned it's called the 'interrobang'
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interrobang
I would use this all. the. time if I thought I could get away with it.
As a professional editor, I liked a lot of what Mignon had to say, but I found her punctuation preferences pretty arbitrary.
The more informal writing atmosphere of the Internet, in my opinion, makes increased use of exclamation marks just fine — but doing so well takes skill, as in any other medium. They may be over-used by some people, but putting an enthusiastic "Thanks!" at the end of an email doesn't seem to me to be eroding the ramparts of good writing. It's also true that multiple exclamation marks add nothing: if you're really shouting, UPPER CASE DOES IT BETTER!
There's also a reason the interrobang hasn't gained much traction in its over 40 years of life: it's unnecessary. Putting a regular question mark and exclamation mark together ("WTF?!") is clear, and I doubt anyone finds the double punctuation jarring anymore. It's certainly common enough. Conversely, the true interrobang character (‽) is so crowded that, especially at small font sizes, it's nearly illegible.
I'm not even sure where Mignon's "never put two punctuation marks together" rule comes from. We do it all the time with quotations (notice that both my quoted examples above have an exclamation mark followed by quotation marks). As I've gone on in my editing career, I've come to accept that consistency and clarity are what make written communication work. The best rules of grammar and style reinforce those goals, but many others do not.
That said, I certainly liked her solution to the problem of ending a parenthetical statement with a smiley face (right?).
Argh. Looks like the CBC blog software won't accept the HTML for an interrobang — another reason not to use it. These should do it:
‽
‽
But if they don't, ?! works perfectly.
‽
It's probably not the CBC blog software. This site runs a pretty stock install of WordPress, with the IntenseDebate comment system. Not sure which of those is the limiting factor.
‽
Personally, I like the use of asterisks surrounding a word to denote emphasis, e.g. *word*. It's handy when you can't use italics.
One set of punctuation marks that I've seen increase dramatically, especially in my personal emails, is the ellipses (…), as a way of stringing not-necessarily connected sentences together.
I do agree, a sarcasm warning is necessary… maybe [s] or something before the sentence?
I like the way Spanish uses the upside down question mark at the beginning of a question to alert you that the upcoming sentence is going to be a question (which allows you to adjust your intonation appropriately if reading aloud). They use the upside down exclamation mark in a similar way.
In point of fact, we don't need any new punctuation marks. The ones we have – albeit not intended to convey emotion – are sufficient. Writing and prose have been fueled by the imagination and creativity of the authors. Good communication skills are more important than new punctuation marks.
The interrobang is an interesting concept – but it's a diminishing returns game. For example- if I am angry, excited, and inquisitive, should I end my sentences with three punctuation marks #?!
If you look at the other comments – custom punctuation also does not translate well into mainstream use mainly because of formatting issues.
Guido
In chat rooms for most of the 90’s, I’ve learned that misinterpreting what someone said was a common occurrence. One day I decided to EMPHASIZE certain words with capitals. It was inspired by tying down the SHIFT key to phonetically YELL at someone. WELL, if you capitalize on certain words, more of the personality shines through and more definition comes out of the sentence.
For example
JOHN sat on the hairy thing
John SAT on the hairy thing
John sat ON the hairy thing
John sat on the HAIRY thing
John sat on the hairy THING.
In addition to that, I have adapted the partial emphasis as well.
fanTAStic
oh MY!
WHAMmaDOOdles!
It would be nice to have a ~tilda~ or something to achieve this. For now I will cap it.
Wayne
I must admit that I'm entering more for the chance to win a Spark bag than for any real desire for more punctuation, but here's my suggestion: an asterisk (*) for "I just had a great idea!" The reason I suggest an asterisk is that there isn't a lightbulb character in standard ASCII, but the asterisk looks like a spark… a brigt idea.
(Yes, I'm sucking up too!) Suggested use: "Gee, what punctuation can I suggest in order to enter to win a Spark bag… * how about a 'spark'!"
I, like Grandpa Simpson, like to shake my fist in anger or irritation. I need some sort of punctuation mark to denote this. Right now I just type "shakes fist" in brackets, which doesn't get my point across like shaking my fist.
not sure what it would look like, but a name I can suggest: the Cheney
Pity the poor oft-misused question mark, as in the command "Guess what." Here is how I write it: "Guess what~" I think that little squiggly-thingee is called a tilde, which is actually a cute name for a baby girl. "Tilde, can you please pass daddy his blackberry? …Thanks, sweetie! *MUAH!*"
/> This is it — the new mark: a forward slash followed by >. Mind you, I would prefer a forward slash with an arrow point but I don't know how to do this on a keyboard. As for its use, it would be used to denote the kind of questioning rise at the end of a sentence which does not, in fact, denote a question but rather the sincere desire on the part of the writer (speaker) not to offend the reader ( listener) with a firmly held opinion. This is often heard in speech? Especially by young women? Who seem to lack self confidence? When it comes to expressing their own ideas? Since they are not asking real questions requiring answers, the last set of phrases would look like this: This is often heard in speech /> especially by young women /> who seem to lack self confidence /> when it comes to expressing their own opinions />.
I once encountered a name for this verbal practice that I quite like–'the obsequious concluding interrogatory'. I hope that a punctuation mark would not encourage this annoying usage pattern. I guess it would be useful for transcription. Or portraying a character in fiction. The other place I have encountered its use (besides the ValSpeak that you mention) is in certain sales representatives. In my experience sales reps that used this were usually based in California and worked in high tech. Perhaps others use it as well, as a technique to disarm objections in the prospect. As for the punctuation mark, I think your arrow notation is too strong and direct for what even you describe as a technique incorporating lack of confidence. How about a slash that rises to connect with the top left of a question mark? Like this: /? (except it would be one continuous character).
This more is more form than function, but how about the bangterrolips?!…
For an excited question followed by a pause. This pause could potentially be awkward.
For example – You're pregnant?!… (duh duh duh)
*<:-( ) -bozo
To connote sarcasm: ddd or (ddd). Example: She looks really good in those pants. (ddd) Stands for: drip drip drip. As in dripping with sarcasm.
While IMing, we often use BRB = Be Right Back.
However there are often times when, rather than ducking away completely, we might simply be involved in multiple IM sessions or we might also doing other tasks.
I would like to therefore suggest a textual symbol that denotes the percentage of your attention that you are denoting to the current conversation. An example of the actual representation could be a number in between two characters that resemble a pair of eyes such as *30* or ^75^ or @100@ (the latter might have issues when used on twitter though!).
Examples of use:
I'm also chatting with bob and Alice *30*
I'll check out that video right now *75*
I've got heaps of things happening at work right now *10*
I would like to see music notes to show a phrase from a song, or to just say the words in a sing-song manner. Right now in the Okanagan valley we are getting the smoke from the fires upcountry, and I would like to say..don't let the smoke get in your eyes (music note, music note)
maybe there is a neat way to use SparkLines to encode simple melodies:
http://www.edwardtufte.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-m…
or maybe you could somehow do mouse-over midi notes.
I'm thinking I'd like to end a lame joke with a "ba-doom ching"
So how about a snappy name for the three periods folks sometimes use to end sentences (e.g. "I wish I liked hip-hop but …")?
I like the tilde as punctuation to denote sarcasm ~ It looks sort of like a furrowed eyebrow to me!! Let's call it the 'asif'. (As in 'as if I really cared, I'd look far more interested ~)
I think we need a mark at the end of an email to indicate when we've sent a knee-jerk response without any second sober thought. Perhaps a back slash ( ) which we would refer to as a back 'lash.
Okay, I'm stretching the idea here, but that bag is mighty appealing. Love the programme.
The interrobang is an interesting concept – but it's a diminishing returns game. For example- if I am angry, excited, and inquisitive, should I end my sentences with three punctuation marks.
she's really helpful for me !!! I love her.