Where does the question mark go — inside or outside the parentheses?

Solution 1:

Regarding "What happens when there's a question mark and only part of the sentence is a question?" and your three suggestions, my opinions are:

• I was distracted by a plane (or was it Superman?) ‒ Is missing period.
• I was distracted by a plane (or was it Superman?). ‒ Is ok
• I was distracted by a plane (or was it Superman)? ‒ Treats whole as question

I don't have definitive authorities to support the above choices. I have seen only three webpages that even remotely address your question:

• englishplus says

  In a sentence containing a parenthetical expression, any punctuation belonging to the main sentence goes outside the parentheses.

• wowwritingworkshop says

  A sentence in parentheses within another sentence does not take a period, because the period is reserved for the main sentence (questions and exclamations, however, must have their respective marks!).

• brians at public.wsu.edu says

  Normally a sentence’s final punctuation mark—whether period, exclamation point, or question mark—goes outside such a parenthesis (like this). However, if the material inside the parenthesis requires a concluding punctuation mark like an exclamation point or question mark (but not a period!), that mark is placed inside the closing mark even though another mark is outside it. This latter sort of thing is awkward, however, and best avoided if you can help it.

Note, rather than using parentheses I would word the sentence as

I was distracted by a plane; or was it Superman?

Solution 2:

When there's a question mark in the parenthetical matter and only part of the sentence is a question, you should put the question mark inside the parentheses and a period (full stop) at the end of the sentence:

I was distracted by a plane (or was it Superman?).

You asked for a reason why. The reason comes from the purpose for parentheses. From The Grammar Bible by Michael Strumpf: Parentheses enclose words, phrases, clauses, and sentences that are included in a sentence as explanations or commentary .... Punctuate the primary portion of the sentence as if the parenthetical portion were not there.

You should be able to lift out the parenthetical portion and still have the sentence make sense and be punctuated correctly.

I actually prefer jwpat7's suggested rewording and punctuation.

Solution 3:

Well you should be able to remove parentheses, and the contents within them, and your statement should still make sense.

So in the first instance:

"I tripped over this morning. I was distracted by a plane (or was it Superman?)" would become "I tripped over this morning. I was distracted by a plane" which works.

But the second instance "I tripped over this morning. I was distracted by a plane (or was it Superman)?" would become "I tripped over this morning. I was distracted by a plane?" Which does not really make sense, or it changes the meaning of the sentence at least.

So, to fully answer your question: In this instance, you would need the question mark within the parentheses. Also with regards to your full stop/period, I think in some conventions it could go outside the parentheses (this might be a British/American thing).

Solution 4:

The question mark should go within the parentheses (I've copied this answer from a related later question asking much the same thing about exclamation marks and parenthesised text).

The general principle, as Danger Fourpence says, is that a sentence should remain structurally valid if the parenthetical brackets, and everything enclosed by them, are removed. I think it's really a stylistic choice whether I put a period after the word “parentheses” in that first sentence above. (But if I had, I’d have had to put the second period inside the closing bracket, like this.)

The text within parentheses can be a whole sentence (several sentences?), but I don’t think it’s acceptable for the “enclosing” sentence to continue after the closing bracket, if one or more periods (exclamation/question marks don’t count!) appear in the parenthetical text.

Thus, for example, this statement ends with a period after the final word “here”. (Following the principle outlined above, I can parenthesise multiple sentences, but in this case they aren’t “part of” any enclosing sentence. Thus the second parenthesised sentence ends with a period before the closing bracket, after this word “here”.) Even if there’s no actual “rule” saying I can’t, I wouldn’t replace the word “period” (and corresponding symbol!) in that statement with “comma” and start this supplementary statement with “but even”!