Every time I write a rhetorical question, I wish there were a special question mark to signify my meaning. Here's what I came up with.
The
Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar writes:
Up until now, the only problem with them has been the clumsy punctuation we use. If we use a traditional question mark, some yahoo might answer. If we use a period, we sound like Eeyore, the donkey who needs Prozac. So thank you, Craig Conley, for this, the rhetorical question symbol. Why didn't we think of that? (Wait, don't answer -- it was rhetorical.)
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Bruce Robb shares:
According to Wikipedia:
In the 1580s, English printer Henry Denham invented a "rhetorical question
mark" for use at the end of a rhetorical question; however, it died out of
use in the 1600s. It was the reverse of an ordinary question mark, so that
instead of the main opening pointing back into the sentence, it opened away
from it.[*]
* Truss, Lynne. Eats, Shoots & Leaves, 2003. p. 142.
