When someone tacks the word what onto the end of a question, it should stand alone as its own question. …Was it given to you as a gift? What? …Were you there alone? with someone? What? …Did the company have benefits? profit sharing? What? When someone turns a “what” question around, punctuate it just as you would the question in …
A Period or an Interrog
When there are two parts to a sentence and one is a statement and the other is a question, it is the one at the end that determines the terminal punctuation. …What he wants to know is where were you going? …The question I am asking is how far were you willing to take this? …Where were you going? is …
Interesting Construction with Dashes and Questions
This is a sentence I was asked about on Facebook. And I have it correctly punctuated here. Have there been any major stressful events in the last year that you can think of — divorce? someone, a family member, dying? a major change in your work? — that has caused additional stress? There are dashes around the suggested answers for …
Where to Put the Interrog?
The rule says to put a question mark at the end of a sentence that asks a question. In reporting, our questions are not always straightforward. Attorneys add things — explanations, clarifications, suggested answers. Taking all of those into consideration, I would have us tweak the rule a bit and word it to read: Put a question mark where a …
A “Redefining” with “That Is”
Here is a punctuation question from FB that inspired today’s blog: “On examination her lower extremities had normal capillary refill — that is, normal circulation — and no trophic changes, in other words, none of the signs of RSD.” Often people want to redefine or further explain what they have just said. We will deal here with this situation when …