I recently received a mark-down for the following phrase:
With this regard, will you please accept the Takeover agreement on this quote so that we can proceed with the validation process?
The quality evaluator (I work with a Customer Service Team) told me that the use of a question mark in this sentence is incorrect.
Is his evaluation correct, and why?
Your ‘quality evaluator’ (whatever that may be), is wrong. The short story is that all formulaically interrogative sentences in English always take a question mark. it doesn’t matter whether it is a rhetorical question, a polite request, or an honest inquiry that expects an answer.
In English, polite requests still use a question mark, even though you are not expecting a verbal response:
Those are all interrogative sentences, not imperative ones. Corresponding imperative versions might perhaps be:
As you see, if you want to skip the question mark, you have to use an imperative not an interrogative.
However, some writers feel that when polite requests are nested in an if conditional, that they do not necessarily require the question mark:
Other writers feel that writing that way is either wrong, or that it’s a bit pushy, so you might use the question mark anyway there:
I’d guess that the version with the question mark is standard English, but that the one without it may not be.
Grammatically, the sentence is a question (however rhetorical) and thus requires a question mark.
Stylistically, the sentence may have some serious problems unless it reflects conventions and jargon specific to (and understood by) the OP's audience.
"With this regard, will you please accept the Takeover agreement on this >quote so that we can proceed with the validation process?"
I think this means something like: "Considering (what was said in the previous sentence), will you please accept (what we have offered) on (what you have offered) so that we can (get on with doing whatever it is that we're mutually trying to accomplish)?
If that is not what the OP meant, this sentence may need some serious reworking. If that is (more or less) what the OP meant, the sentence could still strongly benefit from whatever clarification and simplification can be managed within the situation and context.
Also - sorry to hit an OP when he's down, but - typographically, "takeover" should not be capitalized unless "Takeover Agreement" in this context is a proper noun, in which case both words should be capitalized.
This is not a rhetorical question; it is a request.
The Chicago Manual of Style suggests that written requests formulated as questions do not require a question mark. (Not to suggest that the Chicago Manual of Style is the definitive authority, but it carries weight and the suggestion seems reasonable. Written requests without question marks do not, to my eyes at least, appear 'wrong' and thus distract attention from the subject matter.)
Note to tchrist: Experience persuades me to avoid absolute terms such as all, always and never when describing language.
Considering what we can see of the context, this should be a rhetorical question as @FumbleFingers commented. You are telling them to accept the agreement in order to continue.
The question mark implies that the question is not rhetorical, and that you think the answer could be "no", and you are waiting for their reply. It is valid English but not valid CustomerServicese.
