Writing Skills: Proper Use of the Questions Marks and Apostrophes
Question Marks
The question mark is the easiest sign to use in writing yet many people don’t know how to use it properly. The sole purpose of a question mark is to indicate when a sentence is a question. That is simple, right? Below are some tips on the proper use of the question mark and apostrophe.
- A question mark is used in rhetorical sentences.
* Who cares?
* How should I know?
- A question mark is NOT used when making requests because we don’t expect an answer from this type of statement.
* Can I please look at that book.
* Will you please read that to me again.
Although when we verbalize the above sentences they are spoken as a question. Yes, that is odd but so is the English language.
Apostrophes
Apostrophes should not be used to indicate a plural. The incorrect use of an apostrophe to form a plural is called the greengrocer’s apostrophe. If you have more than one apple write apples not apple’s.
- Use apostrophes to indicate possession
* Place an apostrophe before the s for singular possessive unless the name or word ends in s. James’s shoes are cool or James’ shoes are cool is also correct.
- When you are dealing with possessive plural case use the apostrophe after the s at the end of the word. (book to books, tree to trees)
- Use apostrophes in contractions. In informal writing apostrophes are used to indicate one or more missing letters. Don’t for do not, isn’t for is not and so on.
- Beware of the its/it’s trap. Use an apostrophe with the word it only when you want to indicate a contraction for it is or it has. Its is a pronoun and all pronouns have their own possessive form that does not use an apostrophe.
* It’s just the dog eating its bone.
When writing your story, article or book, it is very important to use proper grammar and punctuation. I know, who has time for that stuff? The muse is running rampant and you can’t stop it. Most of the time, a writer does not need to spend time correcting grammatical errors until the first rewrite. However, it is a good idea to get in the habit of writing correctly all the time. This habit will make your editing time much easier.
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