Today we’re covering one of the easier pieces of punctuation: the question mark. According to Wikipedia, it is also known as an interrogation point, interrogation mark, question point, query, or eroteme. No matter what you call it, it goes at the end of a sentence, clause, or phrase to indicate a question. Like the exclamation point and period, you only need one at the end of the sentence.
The sign below is full of punctuation horrors: an apostrophe “s” on the word “rooms” (though they whited that out when they were proofreading); two question marks; double sets of unnecessary quotation marks; and, the period outside of the quotation marks. Not to mention the unnecessary capitalization and eerie emphasis of the words behind you. I don’t know what’s happening in rooms 130 and 135, but this sign is enough to make me run away screaming.
Coming soon to an email near you: misused and abused quotation marks.
Kara Church
Technical Editor, Advisory
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