CHAPTER 4 Punctuation: End Marks and Commas^95
to fear that their lead exposure would defi nitely lead to Alzheimer’s disease. They
said, “There are, after all, many other things that can affect a person between youth
and old age, aren’t there”?
Paragraph 2
Do you see the world around you going green Has your supermarket started charg-
ing for bags—either plastic or paper. Will you fi nally decide to ride your bicycle to
the offi ce to help reduce carbon emissions (not even considering the cost of gas.)
Did you remember to turn off the lights before you left home (And if you didn’t, will
it bother you all day) Surely, you have switched to energy-effi cient lightbulbs, or
have you I guess we can agree that going green is not an easy thing to do, or can we
There’s a popular children’s song that says it all: It’s not easy being green!
Exclamation Point
The exclamation point is probably the simplest of all end marks. The only challenge
is to not overuse it.
The detective cried, “This was defi nitely murder!”Don’t bother me!I will never forget seeing the movie The Great Houdini!The company had the nerve to say, “We won’t cover that loss”!Once again, note the use of the end mark either inside the quotation marks (e.g., the
fi rst example) or outside the quotation marks (e.g., the fourth example) depending
upon the meaning of the sentence.
Written Practice 4-5
In each of the following sentences, insert an exclamation point or a question mark
wherever one is needed.
- “Are you absolutely certain that the food has no nuts in it” Rosa asked.
- “You know that I would never give you anything that would harm you” her
sister shouted.