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Which makes more sense as end punctuation for the following rhetorical sentence—a period or a question mark?

Maybe you could be a security guard there and enforce whatever the WalMart policy is at that location

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    The presence or absence of a question mark is primarily determined by whether it's a "real" question or not -- would it be pronounced with the rising tone at the end that indicates a question. This is true regardless of whether the wording (without assumed emphasis) suggests a question or not.
    – Hot Licks
    Commented Aug 2, 2015 at 2:45
  • (Remember that the primary purpose of punctuation is to add timing and emphasis information that is meaningful but is not readily determined just from the alphabetic characters of the sentence. The difference between "Let's eat, Grandma!" and "Let's eat Grandma!" is significant.)
    – Hot Licks
    Commented Aug 2, 2015 at 13:46
  • There is a difference between a polite (hedged) request (which this is), requesting compliance, and a rhetorical question, requiring a tacit acceptance of the speaker's wisdom. Rhetorical questions always have question marks; many regard the full stop a correct way to end a polite request, despite the interrogative form of the sentence. I'd be guided by tone here, as @Hot Licks advises, seeing either punctuation as acceptable.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Commented Aug 27, 2020 at 18:08

3 Answers 3

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That particular sentence could be a question or a statement. The use of a question mark or period is what would actually determine that.

Correct:

Maybe you could be a security guard there and enforce whatever the WalMart policy is at that location.

Also correct:

Maybe you could be a security guard there and enforce whatever the WalMart policy is at that location?

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    The second example works very nicely as a suggestion (not exactly a question, though).
    – aparente001
    Commented Aug 2, 2015 at 3:59
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You would use a period at the end:

Maybe you could be a security guard there and enforce whatever the WalMart policy is at that location.

If we rewrote it as a question, then we could use a question mark:

Could you be a security guard there and enforce whatever the WalMart policy is at that location?

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I like how aparente001 worded that but I must also point out there is the percontation point. It is a backwords question mark, and it is specifically for rhetorical questions. http://mentalfloss.com/article/59071/little-known-punctuation-marks-national-punctuation-day

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irony_punctuation

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    The purpose of punctuation is to clarify meaning. Using a mark that's been obsolete for hundreds of years doesn't clarify meaning.
    – David Richerby
    Commented Aug 2, 2015 at 11:18

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