I ask questions when I do not understand something. As I understand it questions are necessary to understand what you want to understand. Yet it seems with some people do not want to be bothered with questions depending on what the question was about, say writing. Take for example, the question, what is casual writing? Words have different meanings and each person has to define it there way as if the word did not have synonyms. Can a question be asked with the question mark at the end of the sentence, instead of using the word question? I seem to get into trouble when I ask any question and mostly it's about writing. curiousPaul
From another forum. I only ask two questions per post, like is there a thing called casual writing? some answer some don't because they do not understand the question. curiousPaul
I found this definition of casual writing on the Net. "Casual writing is done on a non-professional or non-collegiate basis. Consider it the "fun" writing. Blogs, tweets and Facebook posts are all forms of casual writing. Diary entries and journals also fall under this category. This type of writing does not always have to adhere to all the rules of grammar and punctuation, as college-level writing should." I'm not sure what you mean by everybody defining their own meaning for words. Wouldn't that render language unintelligible? You could certainly create a sentence that poses a question that did not require a question mark, but then it would leave the reader free not to answer it or to consider it rhetorical.
Do you mean that you're getting upset because you've posted a question and nobody's responded? There was a recent thread where somebody had posted something for critique and responded to the next post by thanking the poster, and then complaining that x people had viewed it, but he was the only one who'd replied. Sometimes we'll reply, sometimes we won't. Any number of reasons for not replying, of which "can't be arsed" is perfectly acceptable. You seem to be following Humpty-Dumpty's rule, that a word means "exactly what I want it to mean". Most words have well-recognised meanings. A phrase, such as "Casual Writing" is less specific, and as such more open to interpretation. And here, I think it's more a case of whether or not I care about defining it. Absolutely, a question can be asked with a question mark at the end. In fact, if you don't put a question mark at the end, how can anybody tell whether or not it's a question?
Is there a perfect word for a imperfect sentence or vice versa? Words have any definitions per word. I am getting aggravated because most writers seem to know what perfect word to use when there is no perfect word, just a word that comes closest to being understood by all. curiousPaul
If you can answer my questions above - my requests for clarification - we may be able to make some progress.