Why We Punctuate; or, Reason Versus Rule in the Use of Marks

by William Livingston Klein

THE INTERROGATION-POINT

The mark of interrogation has three uses:

1. It is used after a word or group of words asking a question, whether or not such word or words indicate by their form that a question is asked. This usage has already been illustrated. (Page 2.)

2. Enclosed in the proper marks (parentheses, if in the writer’s own language; brackets, if in quoted language), it is placed at a point in a sentence to indicate that the writer questions the accuracy of what immediately precedes it.

This use of the mark of interrogation is not in good taste unless it is for a serious, and not a frivolous, purpose. A foot-note is, in most cases, a better means of expression:

99. He said he was born in 1840(?).

100. He was asked for an exact statement of his age. He replied: “I was born in 1840[?].”

3. It is used by an editor in the margin of a manuscript, or by a proof-reader in the margin of a proof, to question the accuracy of a statement or the correctness of the form of language at the point indicated by the editor or proof-reader. When thus used it is not necessarily enclosed in other marks.