What do rhetorical questions need question marks

Allan M. March 12, , at am. Robert M. Vienie V. Taylor B says:. March 15, , at pm. March 18, , at pm. Debbie says:. March 29, , at pm. April 5, , at am. Su says:. July 24, , at pm. Erin Cannon says:. January 7, , at pm. February 27, , at pm. Serah says:. June 3, , at pm. As for my personal style, I don't use rhetorical questions much, but when I do I end them with question marks. Rhetorical questions are written as any other question, and in English a sentence is never ended with a question mark and a period, even in the case the question is being quoted.

I have never seen a question mark followed by a period to mark the question as rhetorical. It is the context to make a question rhetorical. I believe that all three are technically correct, but have different connotations. The question mark implies you want an answer. The Exclamation point makes it sound like you are complaining.

The period makes it sound like you're being sarcastic. This is just how I interpret them when reading, even if its not as the writer intended. If the rhetorical question does not fall in one of these 3 categories, I'd advise against writing it as a rhetorical question. Why not google 'question mark' as I just did and you'll find that direct implying, not all questions require a question mark.

I would define the last three sentences as colloquialisms, meaning they are not grammatically correct, but understood to be polite, imperative commands.

Defining them as rhetorical questions only justifies the punctuation, grammatically. Often well-defined colloquialisms become standard English anyway. Sign up to join this community. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top. Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group. Create a free Team What is Teams? When a question ends with an abbreviation, end the abbreviation with a period and then add the question mark.

When a question constitutes a polite request , it is usually not followed by a question mark. This becomes more true as the request becomes longer and more complex:. He shouldn't have quit his diet, should he? They're not doing very well, are they? He finished on time, didn't he? She does a beautiful job, doesn't she? Harold may come along, mightn't he? There were too many people on the dock, weren't there?

Be careful of this last one; it's not "weren't they? The instructor asked the students what they were doing. But it is a little more complicated. If a question also a rhetorical question is an "indirect question", you can not use a question mark. This sentence not a question, and a period is used. This also applies to rhetorical questions. The request is formal, and the speaker is not looking to get a response.

So, question marks are used at the end of sentence that are questions. Kevin44 Jan Referring to rhetorical dialogue. Many thanks Dave.