Need help in deciding correct punctuation.

Question

So, I just wrote down the following sentence.

'Now my attempt is to understand the cause of such behaviour. Is it the childhood experiences, as we find in the movie?'

I'm not sure if I've got the punctuation correct in the last sentence with the use of question mark. If reading out, you'd expect the speaker to take a pause after 'experiences' and then provide more information. However, 'as we find in the movie' isn't really an interrogative so putting the question market after it seems erroneous. Kindly suggest the correct punctuation.

'Is it the childhood experiences, as the movie implies?' makes more sense. — Edwin Ashworth, Feb 03 '18 at 15:00

Ross Murray · Answer 1 · 2018-02-03T14:37:16.683

1

The second sentence is correct.

The comma after 'experiences' warns readers the nature of the sentence may be changing into something else. You end up with the interrogative, comma, then a parenthetic aside (an extra detail not essential to the sentence).

You still need to end this sentence with a question mark.

The principle for parenthetic asides is the sentence must be correct if you delete them plus the comma(s) used to separate them from the main body of the sentence.

edited Feb 03 '18 at 14:37

answered Feb 03 '18 at 14:23

Ross Murray

1,434

Don't forget to come back later. Someone with more experience may add to or correct my answer. I'm confident, but not certain, it's all you need to know. – Ross Murray Feb 03 '18 at 14:41
I shall gladly retract the upvote if your answer is proved wrong. :) – Andy Semyonov Feb 03 '18 at 14:55

Need help in deciding correct punctuation.

1 Answers1