Can someone explain this grammar lesson

amother

Jade

Tue, May 12 2015, 8:52 pm

I'm using amother to protect the school that I work in, I was subbing a lesson about grammar and it was about exclamation points. The textbook indicated that the exclamation point is used to imply confusion, and I didn't understand this, it did not give an example and the only thing I could think of is "Huh?!" Can someone enlighten me?

MagentaYenta

Tue, May 12 2015, 9:12 pm

I am so confused. Why is it not called a confusion point?

bigsis144

Tue, May 12 2015, 9:58 pm

"Interjections! Show excitement! Or emotion! They're usually set apart from a sentence by an exclamation point, or by a comma when the feeling's not as strong." Music

As an informal, internet-grammar usage, I can see how an exclamation point can show confusion or irony.

For example:

Quote:

That butcher (!) is a vegetarian.

gp2.0

Tue, May 12 2015, 10:44 pm

That's weird. Exclamation points are for strong emotions. I guess strong confusion would count but that's so weird to explain it like that. Is it a normal accredited book?

I won the lottery! (Happy and excited)
A building collapsed and people died! (Shock and sadness)
I'm can't find my keys! (Confusion and panic)
You stole my car! (Angry)

seeker

Tue, May 12 2015, 11:01 pm

Did the textbook not include examples?

zaq

Wed, May 13 2015, 5:05 pm

Gosh, I dunno, I wouldn't use an ! to express confusion. A ? yes. A??? possibly. As in "You're in your ninth month and hoping to summit Mt. Everest next week???"

The name of the school doesn't matter, assuming they didn't write the book. The name of the textbook matters. And the author/s.

Sadie

Wed, May 13 2015, 5:26 pm

Can you take a picture of the relevant page? It would be interesting to see.
I got a perfect score on my verbal SAT (at age 32 I rarely get an opportunity to brag about this, so thanks for the opportunity!) and I'm also studying for a certificate to teach English, and I have never heard of something like this. I'd love to see the lesson.

Wed, May 13 2015, 5:58 pm

amother wrote:

indicated that the exclamation point is used to imply confusion

Definition is for a question mark.

amother

Jade

Wed, May 13 2015, 7:35 pm

Op here. It was definitely not a typo, there was no example of it used to imply confusion. This was in a 1st grade workbook. I can understand the panic idea, but that's too high of a concept in 1st grade. How do you explain to first grader the difference between "question" (I.e. question mark) and "confusion" so not to create utter confusion?

amother

Turquoise

Wed, May 13 2015, 7:41 pm

OP, I have a PhD in English and have taught on the college/university level for many years. The workbook is wrong unless the definition wasnt complete. In other words, if asked whether a ! or ? indicates confusion, the ! would be correct (although a silly example). Otherwise, the book is just wrong.

Wed, May 13 2015, 8:31 pm

By typo I mean that it is an editing/publishing error (this is reinforced by the information that there is not an example to support the statement).

amother

Jade

Wed, May 20 2015, 1:00 am

Op here, So I managed to get a photo of the workbook page. I see that it says "Exclamation Point" on top, but it says "Appendix:...Why writers use Question marks" So was this really supposed to say Question Mark?

DrMom

Wed, May 20 2015, 2:40 am

Are you supposed to circle the right answers?

If not, I agree that his is more than a "typo" (there is an illustration). At the very least it is confusing.

I would say an exclamation point is sometimes used in combination with a question mark to express extreme confusion mixed with strong emotions. Example: "Did you really just call me a b!tch?!?", "Are you out of your mind?!?" etc.

salt

Wed, May 20 2015, 3:42 am

This discussion reminds me of this clip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyRLFWF2v_U

Very funny, worth watching for a good laugh. It's just 1 min long.

Wed, May 20 2015, 7:37 am

DrMom,

Students are to provide an example/s of such type of use in each box.

OP,

Thanks for the pic - - definitely an editing error. How are question marks presented?

Salt,

Love it!!!!!