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- - Close Punctuation
- Introduction to Punctuation
- Spacing
- The Period, Main purpose
- Imperatives, exclamations and indirect questions
- Ellipsis points
- Leaders
- Other uses
- Periods properly omitted
- The Question Mark, Main purpose
- Requests, indirect questions and other uses
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- The Exclamation Mark, Miscellaneous
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7.04 Imperatives, exclamations and indirect questions
Use a period after a mild imperative or exclamation:
- If you want to know who is going to change this country, go home and look in the mirror.
—Maude Barlow - U-turn if you want to. The lady’s not for turning.
—Margaret Thatcher
A sentence that is interrogative in form may be imperative in function and thus take a period (see 7.10 Requests, indirect questions and other uses):
- Will you come this way, please.
Indirect questions are affirmative sentences and take a period, not a question mark (but see 7.10 Requests, indirect questions and other uses):
- It is important for managers to ask why annual performance objectives have not been met.
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