Question marks

Question marks

If a sentence is a question, then it should end in a question mark. The only mistake people make is to sometimes use a question marks in sentences like this:

“I asked him whether I could have a day’s leave?”

The sentence above is a statement, so it doesn’t need a question mark, even though it is talking about a question.

The other situation that sometimes causes confusion is when an instruction is given in question form:

“Could you let me have your final decision by the end of the day?”

Although I believe this needs a question mark, it is becoming increasingly common for good writers to leave the question mark out. This is presumably because they want the recipient to do as they’re told, but they don’t want to appear rude. This seems wrong to me: if you don’t want something to sound like a question, just use the word please:

“Please let me have your final decision by the end of the day.”

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