Excuse me. What's the question? Questions about ?.

In what ways does the font size and style of question marks affect our reading? Does the style of the font placed with a question mark effect the rhetorical way the question is asked? In what ways do our eyes subconsciously discern from a multiple layers that question marks can underlie?

You may have not noticed (I’m hoping you didn’t) that all of the above question marks are in a different font. If you did, thank you for your close reading interest! However, I would venture to guess that most of you scanned right passed the question mark already knowing the structure of the sentence is interrogative.  What if I had expanded the question marks in font size?

In what ways does the font size and style of question marks affect our reading? Does the style of the font placed with a question mark effect the rhetorical way the question is asked? In what ways do our eyes subconsciously discern from a multiple layers that question marks can underlie?

? (The forth question mark used (next to size))…

Before, the question marks just represented a grammatically functioning symbol. Now, however, we can easily discern the different Identities of the question marks. We have removed the veil of obscurity into a new truth; the question marks are unique. To answer part of the first question, (as the ladies already know) size does matter. And I am willing to bet that the font styles also matter and can have a rhetorical function also (question 2).

First, I will observe what the font style of different question marks look like to me. I encourage everyone to make their own observations as to what the question mark may represent for them. The first,?, is Plantegent Cherokee and resembles a cartoonish format to me (the question mark only). I see it springing off the pages in the Sunday cartoons section of the newspaper with an enthusiastic, !, jumping off the page with it. Second, we have a Times New Roman question mark: ?. Although this question mark is from a generic formal font style, the look of the question mark feels out of place in a formal writing environment. It has an early 1900s newspaper headline look or how Sherlock Holmes would style his question mark: British. The final two question marks are from remarkably similar font styles: Calibri (body), ?, and Calibri Light (header), ?. The basic form of these two question marks is almost identical, but the Calibri Light is (you guessed it) lighter! I, however, see both of the question marks as more of a formal styled symbol. The line to the period mark is mechanically straight and the semi-circle is nearly perfectly round. Could these small, almost unnoticeable, stylistic variations serve a rhetorical purpose?

I believe changing their size and style relation to the main text could serve to imply different kinds of questions. The comical question mark could represent a sarcastic question. The professional question mark could represent a very serious question.

I ask; will you consider using your question marks as a form of stylistic representation? Even if I asked using the personal handwriting font?

?Calibri (body) ?Plantegent Cherokee ?Times New Roman ?Times New Roman ?Calibri (body) ?Calibri Light (header)  ?freestyle script