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1) If the ? is for yourself, then use two in row, which would never show up in regular text. That way you can search for them before submitting. 2) If the ? is for the reader, then I'd say never ...
Answer
#3: Attribution notice added
by
System
·
2019-12-08T03:25:44Z (about 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/10536 License name: CC BY-SA 3.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision
by
dmm
·
2019-12-08T03:25:44Z (about 5 years ago)
1) If the ? is for yourself, then use two in row, which would never show up in regular text. That way you can search for them before submitting. 2) If the ? is for the reader, then I'd say never ever do that. It's the writer's job to find the right word or phrase! You don't put a placeholder there with "punctuation" to indicate that it's not right. Yuck!! Now, having said that, there CAN be situations where the right word to describe something is not what the people in the story would use to describe themselves. (For example, terrorists describing themselves as "freedom fighters," or sewer workers describing themselves as an "elite cadre.") In those situations, you can either let your readers discover the irony themselves, or you can point it out. Example: > These were not simply sewage treatment workers. No, they were an elite cadre -- or so they told themselves, as they slogged through human waste a foot deep.
#1: Imported from external source
by
System
·
2014-03-18T17:19:41Z (almost 11 years ago)
Original score: 1