by Lucy E. Zahnle

Created on: February 21, 2010

Punctuation plays a vital, though subtle, role in showing a character’s feelings during a scene. Punctuation operates in a text the way that stage directions function in a live performance. However, instead of actors following the specified directions, readers use the directions provided by punctuation to interpret character’s feelings and actions.

For instance, when readers encounter an ellipse three dots at the end of a character’s conversation, they know that it indicates that the reader is uncertain of what he or she is saying and may be deferring to another character. An ellipse can actually pause a story in the readers’ minds for a few seconds while they ponder the implications of what the author or character has not said. Using an ellipse to hint at a character’s uncertainty allows the writer to suggest mystery, weakness, or the likelihood of future problems for the character without having to use a heavy-handed aside to the reader.

Question marks obviously show uncertainty or doubt in a character, but a question mark is much more straightforward than the ellipse. When readers see question marks, they know that either the narrator or a character is skeptical of or uncertain about something in a story.

Question marks can indicate curiosity. In a scene where a child asks question after question about everything around him, the question mark plays a big role in his curiosity as well as in the irritation of the person to whom he is speaking.

Question marks can also be used to show anger. When one character is interrogating another and uses a barrage of questions without waiting for answers, it is clear to readers that the interrogator is angry, not uncertain or curious. He or she is using questioning as a weapon.

The exclamation point always indicates excitement, but understanding the underlying emotion suggested by its presence requires a little more work from readers. Readers must figure out from the context of the story whether that excitement stems from anger, happiness, or some other emotion.

Sets of single quotation marks can be important for providing readers some insight into a character’s thoughts. Many authors use single quotes to indicate that they are “quoting” a character’s thoughts verbatim. Others use single quotes to indicate that a character or the narrator is being sarcastic or is skeptical of something in the story. Here is an example of the use of both double quotations and single

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