How to use exclamation marks! The Editing Podcast, S4E2

How to use exclamation marks! The Editing Podcast

27/4/2020

In this episode of The Editing Podcast, Denise and Louise discuss how to use exclamation marks, and why more than one is too many.

Click to listen to Season 4, Episode 2

Listen to find out more about:

What exclamation marks look like
Functions: Surprise, emphasis, volume
How many to use
Social media use
Reasons to omit them: web, business academic copy
Balancing use and abuse

Editing bites

How to Fix Your Damn Book, by James Osiris Baldwin, CreateSpace, 2016
Purdue OWL

Music credit
‘Vivacity’ Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License.

Louise Harnby is a line editor, copyeditor and proofreader who specializes in working with crime, mystery, suspense and thriller writers.

She is an Advanced Professional Member of the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading (CIEP), a member of ACES, a Partner Member of The Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi), and co-hosts The Editing Podcast.

Visit her business website at Louise Harnby | Fiction Editor & Proofreader, say hello on Twitter at @LouiseHarnby, connect via Facebook and LinkedIn, and check out her books and courses.

7 Comments

Jim McCarthy link

28/4/2020 07:34:35 pm

GREAT SHOW, Ladies!!! I learned a LOT!!!! :-)
(just kidding, but it was enjoyable, as usual)

Louise Harnby

29/4/2020 04:50:20 pm

Thanks, Jim! Oh, go on then. Have a few more!!!!!

Lindsey Russell

9/5/2020 11:40:16 pm

'What' - in dialogue is the one I find difficult. Question mark or exclamation mark?

10/5/2020 12:49:43 am

I recommend a question mark, but use italic for the mark and the word 'what'. Don't, however, italicize the quote marks. The italic indicates the emphasis while the question mark ensures the reader sounds out the dialogue with the appropriate interrogation.

10/5/2020 12:30:23 pm

Thanks Louise, especially as you picked up my omission of someone saying it in exasperation :)

Margot

10/5/2020 07:16:00 pm

My question relates to the best use of initials to refer to an organization or office in a mystery novel. In non-fiction, I am accustomed to writing out the name of the organization in full, followed by its initials in brackets. After that I can just refer to the initials. In fiction, however, especially in dialogue, that doesn't seem to work. Following, for example, is an excerpt from a scene in my novel."The Premier’s Office had issued the usual “key messages,” one-liners, which no doubt had been vetted by everyone at the disposal of the powerful PO—lawyers, senior policy analysts and communications officers...." I don't want to keep using the phrase "The Premier's Office" as this will come up frequently, but how do I introduce the abbreviation "PO" so the reader knows what I'm talking about. And in conversation, its use might be first made by the speaker referring only to the initials but the reader may not know what is being referred to.

Thank you

Margot Trevelyan

11/5/2020 08:37:50 pm

I think your readers will work it out as long as you deal with it at first mention. So this is made up but you get the picture:

"Have you read this nonsense from the PO?" John said.
The Premier's Office had issued the usual “key messages,” one-liners vetted by everyone at their disposal—lawyers, senior policy analysts and communications officers.
"Drives me nuts," Sally said. "Just a lot of fluff but it leaves no room for argument."

In that example, the reader can see straightaway that PO refers to Premier's Office. There's no need to make a big tell of it - trust them. Just a nudge like that will enable them to work it out.

Does that help?
Louise
"