Question Mark Usage

Kalthandrix · Jul 8, 2008

I am helping a friend out by reading over a draft of a story he is working on and I have come across a situation where he uses question marks and I am unsure if it is the correct usage or not. Therefore I have come to you all so that I may partake of your mad skilz!

So here is a section from his story:

Today, though, he was thinking about the dog more than usual. Much more than usual. He was trying to think of what to do with the dog. He was not quite yet terrified of what he had created; he was far more afraid of what would happen to him without the dog.
Still, the question rolled both idly and with a rabid frequently through his thoughts: what would happen if the dog became unmanageable...if it began to show aggression towards him?
He peered out the broken screen door into the barren backyard, the yard bright and hot under the white noon sky. His dark eyes followed the line of the long, thick chain running across the dusty, pock-marked ground and into the dark hole of the doghouse where the dog lay doing whatever it was it did all day in the dry heat.

The sentence in the middle of the material above is one instance where he uses a question mark. Now I am pretty sure that this is a no-no, but I just wanted to double check.

Thanks!

CaroGirl · Jul 8, 2008

That particular question mark is used correctly. It would be incorrect without it. Maybe this should be moved to Grammar where the gurus can take a crack at it.

Quossum · Jul 8, 2008

The question mark is used correctly.

Correct:

One question haunted him: What would happen if the dog became unmanageable?

Correct:

He questioned what would happen if the dog became unmanageable.

Incorrect:

He questioned what would happen if the dog became unmanageable?

The act of questioning is not in itself a question. However, the colon sets the question itself aside as its own thought and therefore that sentence receives the question mark.

HTH,
--Q

loquax · Jul 8, 2008

Do you mean whether it's okay to use question marks in third person narrative? If so, then yeah it's fine. Or at least I hope so - I do it all the time.

Kalthandrix · Jul 8, 2008

Cool. Thanks for the wicked swiftness of your replies everyone!

I was really unsure and I thought someone had told me when critiquing a piece I wrote that this was not the proper way to do it. Must be I got some bad advice or mixed up on my own somewhere.

Thanks again.

CaroGirl · Jul 8, 2008

Perhaps you're thinking of sentences like

"I wondered what time my father would show up." or

"He questioned why she painted the walls puce, it looked so awful."

Those don't require a question mark. But this writer has set the question apart using a colon and beginning with the question word "what", so it definitely needs the question mark.

maestrowork · Jul 8, 2008

I agree the usage was fine (and I agree with CaroGirl -- you're probably confused with an indirect question). But I'd suggest: a) capitalize "what", and b) get rid of the ellipses.

Still, the question rolled both idly and with a rabid frequently through his thoughts: What would happen if the dog became unmanageable, or if it began to show aggression towards him?

IceCreamEmpress · Jul 8, 2008

And your friend probably means "frequency" rather than "frequently" there.

CaroGirl · Jul 8, 2008

IceCreamEmpress said:
And your friend probably means "frequency" rather than "frequently" there.

Yes. That too.

StephanieFox · Jul 8, 2008

I'd also change this:
Today, though, he was thinking about the dog more than usual. Much more than usual.

To this:
Today though, he was thinking about the dog more than usual – much more than usual.

Some writers don't like the long dash, but I like it just fine. :tongue

Kalthandrix · Jul 8, 2008

This is all great stuff - thanks again. All of your comments are great and I really appreciate them.

I have not been around the Cooler lately - and man I have actually been missing all of you (in general, as in the group of writers here

)

Kalthandrix · Jul 8, 2008

Alright, you all seem up to the challenge of...well...helping the challenged. So I will ask this; if one can use question marks in a third person narriative, how about exclaimation marks?

Here is an example from the story I am current writing:

The thought sent Phnor into another round of heart wrenching sobs as he held the tiny body. Looking down at the still form of his daughter through eyes blurry with new tears, Phnor struggled to make sense of it all.
She had been getting better, he could have sworn it!

Your aid and wisdom is appreciated

CaroGirl · Jul 8, 2008

In this passage I think the comma splice is a far greater sin than the exclamation point.

This: She had been getting better, he could have sworn it!

Should be either this: She had been getting better; he could have sworn it!

Or this: She had been getting better. He could have sworn it!

Two independent clauses cannot be joined by a comma.

Personally, I dislike exclamations in first-person narrative but using them isn't wrong. It's simply a stylistic choice, as far as I know.

Kalthandrix · Jul 8, 2008

I like sin

Any who - I agree. The semicolon will be a much better choice.

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