Pass-Agg Punctuation

Exhibit A:

People using more than one question mark after a question, esp in work-related communication.

'Did you get my e-mail??????'

Yes, I did, but your aggressive use of question marks means I probably won't answer it ever.

― Le Bateau Ivre, Friday, September 9, 2016 4:45 PM (one minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Exhibit B: full stops in text messages

what else?

ellipses make everything sound passive aggressive but are usually used by people for reasons I don't quite understand.

http://writing-skills.com/five-annoying-ways-use-ellipsis

I like the 'ellipses followed by question mark' combo.

quotation is ripe for this. [sic] is often snide, quote marks can be used to undermine and of course italicising is a solid way of expressing incredulity at something seen as particularly stupid/awful/otherwise worthy of disdain

worst is the contemptuously ironic and pointed dropping of Gs (esp by someone who would never normally do so), often deployed as a self-satisfied sign off e.g. just sayin'

That ellipses article...is more annoying than any ellipsis ever

I use semicolons in text messages.

That ellipses article...is more annoying than any ellipsis ever

― imago, Friday, September 9, 2016 12:14 PM (two minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Whatever... it explains some of the things I don't have time to; I don't really "give a shit"... about whether a casually written article... about common annoying ellipses use... is "acceptable"...

Thanks.

I don't find a full stop at the end of a full sentence text particularly bad and do it myself sometimes, but imo the ones in the example are annoying because they're sentence fragments (and "yeah that's fine." is missing a comma) which makes the full stop at the end seem especially bored and brusque

is there anything worse though than a rhetorical question with a full stop at the end.

I mean a rhetorical question with no question mark can be kinda pass-agg but mostly just casual internet style, but that last one was way worse, right

I text in complete sentences so I pretty much always end my texts with the appropriate punctuation.

Great thread.

I index all of mine. "So, if you DO want to meet for dinner but we haven't decided on a place by 7pm, then please refer to Subsection B, Para. 12 of my text of 2:38pm (supra)."

I guess ellipses would be the appropriate punctuation for textually representing my most hated usage of English: the dismissive 'Oooookay...'

to me ellipses are more self-consciously wacky than pass-agg but I used to use them a lot and I guess I'm both so either works

I cut down a lot when one really annoying guy used to send emails with... like... so many ellipses per email... with random numbers of dots..... like sometimes really loads and loads of dots......... though the worst,,,, is the comma ellipsis,,,,,, what the fuck does that even mean....

anyway.. I did not want to be that guy... you know how that is... or maybe you don't... I mean, who am I to tell you what you know...

lol was this annoying emailer DOOMIE? he used to post here like that

celine is all like...whatever.

http://zakhor-online.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Louis-Ferdinand-C%C3%A9line.jpg

ilxors u don't miss^^^

Celine was aiming for "aggressive pacifist punctuation," got mixed up.

my text messages are more grammatically correct than my internet posts

Occasionally try to justify my use of dashes - to the exclusion of - all - other punctuation in emails - as - Dickinsonian - but I think it is just laziness

https://twitter.com/seanonolennon/status/774427567218683904

i'm not sure if it's pass-agg but this comma is certainly intriguing

Ha -- I was writing yesterday about what periods signify to the young.

Totally feeling this thread. I have trouble in some work contexts not using emojis when clearly they are not professional, but I'd like to stay on friendly terms with someone.

Alfred, your post is interesting, but I think you're assuming that by eschewing full stops "the youth of today" are not learning the rules of language. I would counter that they are learning the rules, but that the rules are changing, and in fact they're learning more complicated rules (more forms of written communication -> many more registers to master).

I guess while we're at it, I should disclose my punctuation habits. I'm a full sentence text message person, including the full stop and sometimes even correctly-used semicolons, my god. I tend to only use unpunctuated no caps sentences when I'm sad, or if what I'm writing is so short it seems pointless to bother with punctuation. I used to be an ellipsis abuser, I think I liked the vagueness... which is probably why I adopted the question mark for a statement habit, b/c I don't always want people to think I'm certain if I'm not 100% sure of what I'm saying?

Alfred, your post is interesting, but I think you're assuming that by eschewing full stops "the youth of today" are not learning the rules of language. I would counter that they are learning the rules, but that the rules are changing, and in fact they're learning more complicated rules (more forms of written communication -> many more registers to master).

This is true of my best writers, who force me to reexamine sentences in the way you're describing. In reviews, blogs, and other forms of writing that aren't academic, the quasi-enthusiasm of the well-placed exclamation point works.