Communities

Writing
Writing
Codidact Meta
Codidact Meta
The Great Outdoors
The Great Outdoors
Photography & Video
Photography & Video
Scientific Speculation
Scientific Speculation
Cooking
Cooking
Electrical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Judaism
Judaism
Languages & Linguistics
Languages & Linguistics
Software Development
Software Development
Mathematics
Mathematics
Christianity
Christianity
Code Golf
Code Golf
Music
Music
Physics
Physics
Linux Systems
Linux Systems
Power Users
Power Users
Tabletop RPGs
Tabletop RPGs
Community Proposals
Community Proposals
tag:snake search within a tag
answers:0 unanswered questions
user:xxxx search by author id
score:0.5 posts with 0.5+ score
"snake oil" exact phrase
votes:4 posts with 4+ votes
created:<1w created < 1 week ago
post_type:xxxx type of post
Search help
Notifications
Mark all as read See all your notifications »
Q&A

Post History

60%
+1 −0
Q&A Indicating a word choice you're unsure of

I've often had situations where I'm unsure of the correct word to be used, either when writing or proofreading. How can this sense be indicated in writing? Someone mentioned adding a question mark ...

4 answers  ·  posted 11y ago by wzub‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T03:25:41Z (about 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/10519
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar wzub‭ · 2019-12-08T03:25:41Z (about 5 years ago)
I've often had situations where I'm unsure of the correct word to be used, either when writing or proofreading. How can this sense be indicated in writing? Someone mentioned adding a question mark just before it to indicate that the writer is unsure of that particular word. For example:

> These were not simply sewage treatment workers, but an elite ?cadre of sewage treatment workers

Here the word in question is cadre, and we're trying to indicate that the writer is aware that's not the perfect word to use in the situation.

Is this a generally accepted way of indicating such a thing? I haven't seen it often enough to make me think so, but it feels better than placing the question mark after the word, which might make it read like a question instead.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2014-03-15T22:00:40Z (almost 11 years ago)
Original score: 4