Grammar

[spudtater]

I'm in the middle of composing an email enquiring about a job, and got stuck on one particular sentence. Do you finish "Please could you send me details on how to apply" with a question mark, or a full stop? Logically, it's a question, but it's not actually said as a question.

[Poll #658466]

Comments

[feorag.livejournal.com]

It is actually phrased as a question: "Could you do this?"

[spudtater.livejournal.com]

But if you were to say it out loud, you'd not say it as a question; you'd end on a falling rather than a rising tone. Which makes it look odd to me when it's written with a question mark.

(Funnily enough, "could you do this" rises in the manner of a question, while "please could you do this", the ostensibly more polite version, drops in the manner of a command.)

You're a lot more literate than me, though, so I'll trust that you're right on this!   8^)

[(Anonymous)]

Grammatically, it's a request rather than an instruction, so you should use a question mark.

[scattergather.livejournal.com]

Bah. Sorry about the anonymous post, I needed to log in again after the switch to subdomains.

[feorag.livejournal.com]

The 'please' is just there to indicate that you are asking politely. It doesn't make it any less of a question.

The tone of "Could you do this?" can vary if a particular emphasis is needed. It's quite amusing, because each word could be emphasised, for a different (mostly sarcastic) meaning each time. I so love English.

[spudtater.livejournal.com]

In terms of speech acts, it's not a question but rather a request. (Although this doesn't mean that it doesn't end with a question mark).

[(Anonymous)]

Change the sentence if you are unsure to something like.

"I would be grateful if you could send me details on how to apply."

or

"Could you please send me details on how to apply?"

That way it's definitely a question or not.

[bassresistance.livejournal.com]

The first one is probably the way to go :)

[spudtater.livejournal.com]

Okay, will do so. It was in fact my first thought to change it to that, but then I wondered if it didn't sound a bit imploring.

Perhaps I shouldn't obsess over the details quite so much.   8^)

[kropotkin29.livejournal.com]

Perhaps I shouldn't obsess over the details quite so much
Ah but the details are _important_.

Much sympathies- I have spent today obsessively altering my CV.
am calling a halt at draft_23.

[spudtater.livejournal.com]

23 skidoo!

[f33b.livejournal.com]

I would like to know more about the position and the application process. Please send the relevant information to spudtater's home.

[xquiq.livejournal.com]

This is personal preference, but if you are fairly confident the recipient can provide the details you're looking for, I would remove the word 'could' from the sentence.

[xquiq.livejournal.com]

Erm yes and the word 'you' obviously as well...

[stormsearch.livejournal.com]

I said probably a question mark because it's grammatically a question, thus needs a question mark. I'd also put one in because it sounds polite.

Although, as someone else observed, I'd probably phrase it differently; "Please send me details on how to apply." or, more smoothly, "Please send me application details." Or, smoothly and gracefully, "I'd be grateful if you could send me application details."

I'd go for the latter.

[sigmonster.livejournal.com]

Take out "could you" and use a full stop. FWIW.

[nocturnal-life1.livejournal.com]

it's definatelty a full stop as you are not asking a question, as it does not contain "why", "who", "what", "where" or "when".

[spudtater.livejournal.com]

Are you sure?   8^)

[markadm.livejournal.com]

It's not a question: it merely looks at one.
The sentence is grammatically the same as "you could please send..."

nocturnal_life1's argument is good too, in that it does not contain a question-word (but neither does "are you going out tonight?"), however I base my argument on the fact that Germanic languages employ the reversal and preposition (or postposition) of verbs, especially if not at all times, the modal verbs, and English is basically Frenchified German with Danish on top.