41b Question marks

Use question marks to close sentences that ask direct questions.

image How is the human mind like a computer, and how is it different?

– Kathleen Stassen Berger and Ross A. Thompson,

The Developing Person through Childhood and Adolescence

Question marks do not close indirect questions, which report rather than ask questions.

image She asked whether I opposed his nomination.

Do not use a comma or a period immediately after a question mark that ends a direct quotation.

image

Questions in a series may have question marks even when they are not separate sentences.

image I often confront a difficult choice: should I go to practice? finish my homework? spend time with my friends?

A question mark in parentheses indicates that a writer is unsure of a date, a figure, or a word.

image Quintilian died in ad 96 (?).