This use of the mark of interrogation is not in good taste unless it is for a serious, and not a frivolous, purpose. A foot-note is, in most cases, a better means of expression:
100. He was asked for an exact statement of his age. He replied: “I was born in 1840[?].”
3. It is used by an editor in the margin of a manuscript, or by a proof-reader in the margin of a proof, to question the accuracy of a statement or the correctness of the form of language at the point indicated by the editor or proof-reader. When thus used it is not necessarily enclosed in other marks.
1. It is used after a word or group of words to express command, surprise, or emotion.
2. Enclosed in brackets, it is used in a quotation to express surprise, irony, or contempt.
The practice of using two or three exclamation-points together is not now followed.
When one, for the sake of brevity or otherwise, omits a word, a group of words, or one or more sentences from a quotation, such omission, or _ellipsis_, is indicated by either periods or stars. Periods are generally preferred on the ground that they look better on the printed page than stars. Unfortunately, the number of periods used for an ellipsis is not definitely fixed by convention. Some writers and printers use three, and others use four; we prefer three.
If words are omitted from the end of a sentence, the end-mark of the sentence, if an exclamation-point or an interrogation-point, is retained, and follows the three periods. If the end-mark of the sentence is a period, and one or more sentences following are omitted, there will be four periods at this point. There will be the same number if words are omitted from the beginning of a sentence following a sentence ending with a period.
If stars are used, the closing period is retained.
If one or more paragraphs, or if, in poetry, one or more lines, are omitted, a full line of periods or stars is used.
A dash or stars are used in the place of letters omitted from a word, and the dash in place of figures omitted from a number of figures. Stars were formerly much used for omitted letters.
Examples will illustrate the punctuation under consideration. Our first example is taken from the current issue of a well-known weekly periodical: