Punctuation of an exclamative question


What is the proper way of writing an exclamative question:




  1. What are you doing!?

  2. What are you doing?!



or is it better to just leave it as a simple question?



Answer



According to the Interrobang wikipedia page, this symbol [‽] has been created to convey the meaning of your question. Using it you ask "a question in an excited manner, express excitement or disbelief in the form of a question, or ask a rhetorical question."


But, always in that page, you can see it's a nonstandard symbol, so like it says, "in standard English, the same inflection is usually notated by ending a sentence with first a question mark and then an exclamation mark."


Now, it's also true that in an informal context, most people won't really care about it, but if you must choose a "line", it's that one.
Concerning formal writing, I'd suggest to avoid any of these and focus on the wording to convey the "exclamative" tone of the question.


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