Grammar

Not a Question? Then Don’t Use a Question Mark!

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I’m seeing a disturbing trend in web headlines these days: people are using question marks when there’s no question being asked.

Very early in our school careers, we were all taught that the purpose of a question mark is to indicate that a question has been asked.

When our eye detects a question mark in the printed word, we change the intonation of the words in the question so that those listening understand a question is being asked instead of a statement being made.

I’ve always thought the Spanish language did a very clever thing with the question mark: they use an inverted mark (&nbsp¿) at the beginning of a sentence, so the reader knows immediately that a question is about to be asked.

But these days, I’ve noticed something curious on the web.

How-to posts tend to be popular, depending on the subject matter, because they can provide useful information to a reader and can serve as an evergreen-type post that can provide long-term traffic for a site.

But when you begin a blog post headline with the phrase, “How to…,”&nbsp there’s a good chance your headline won’t actually ask a question.

I saw a post title along the lines of this the other day:

How to write a more effective blog post?

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with a blog post title not being a complete sentence. Headlines are rarely complete sentences.

But there’s something very wrong grammatically with placing a question mark there: it’s not a complete sentence and it’s not even phrased as a proper question.

So the question mark itself is unnecessary and out of place.

The writers of these bad headlines are likely trying to come up with titles that would match Google searches, and a surprising number of Google searches actually are framed as questions. In the case of this one, people might actually Google, “How do I write more effective blog posts?” I search with keywords, so my query on that topic would be “writing effective blog posts.”

Less typing. More to the point. But certainly no question mark, since my search isn’t any more of a question than that headline was.

So if your headline isn’t asking a question, just leave off the question mark. It will look better and not give the more grammar-conscious among us reason to question your knowledge before they ever read the first word of your post.

the authorPatrick
Patrick is a Christian with more than 30 years experience in professional writing, producing and marketing. His professional background also includes social media, reporting for broadcast television and the web, directing, videography and photography. He enjoys getting to know people over coffee and spending time with his dog.