Period or Question Mark

In the following sentences does one use a question mark or a period?

"As I read and realized I was still struggling with two year old issues, I wondered why "

"While blogging I came across a question that I have had before: to use a period or question mark "

I figured since we have been discussing semicolons I would throw this at you, too.

Thanks for the help!

Sue, I'm certainly no expert, but in the first example I would have
added a comma after 'wondered', then italicized the word 'why' and then
the question mark. To NOT use the question mark, I would leave it as
you have it written and used a period at the end.

As I read and realized I was still struggling with two year old issues, I wondered, why?

The colon should separate two complete sentences, so I would do this:

While blogging I came across a question that I have had before: When should I use a period instead of a question mark?

Or, my famous em-dash!

While blogging I came across a question that I have had before—whether to use a period or question mark.

While grading me, please use the Bell Curve method...

Sue, I think it is often a matter of style.


"As I read and realized I was still struggling with two year old issues, I wondered why "

I would find a way to eliminate at least one 'I' from
that sentence, perhaps breaking it into two.

"By reading, I realized they were two year old issues. I wondered why."

'I wondered why' is actually a statement, not a question.


"While blogging I came across a question that I have had before: to use a period or question mark "

This one, I would put a comma behind blogging, leave the rest as is, and end with a period. But, I'm with Brew, and am no expert. So I may be all wet. You can grade us both accordingly!

As I read, I wondered why I was still struggling with two-year-old issues.

Two year old issues means two issues that have lasted a year. Two-year-old issues means issues that have lasted two years.

While blogging, I came across the familiar problem of whether to use a period or question mark.

Hi Sue,

I agree with Zada; it is a matter of style. If you are unsure about a certain grammar structure, check out William Strunk's Elements of Style on the net:

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Fiction writers have a tendency to break the rules to maintain a style of writing that flows (good grammar can be stilted) so you don't need to stick strictly to the rules. However, the writng should not be ambiguous and left to interpretation. Readers will do that anyway, without you helping them! LOL! Good luck with your writing! We never stop learning.

I don't know, Shelagh. I decided years ago it was a waste of time.

Dick, with your response you got me laughing. Yes, there are a number of ways to express what one wishes to say. And if there are two writers, they will most likely express it differently.
I enjoy reading some things that read just like someone talks. And, if that is the style of the writer, perhaps "journalistic license" (writer's perogative) comes into play.

Don't get too uptight Sue. Who knows, you may have a style that others may envy.

Quote :

Don't get too uptight Sue. Who knows, you may have a style that others may envy.

Thank you, Abe. Almost everyone that I have talked to who has read my book told me that it is like having me right beside them talking to them. I am told I write the way I talk. In my forward it says I am colloquial. I guess it is my "style" like Zada stated. (Hmmmm... now was I suppose to use apostrophes to enphasize the word style? What about the three dots after Hmmmmm: Are they appropriate? Did I use the last colon correctly?) "Now I am second guessing all my punctuation," Sue stated with a crazed look in her eye.

I guess I panicked when I started reading what you all had to say about punctuation. I felt as though I was doing it all wrong. And yet, (the comma is for you to pause here) no one else has mentioned my punctuation. So guess it is only my nerves in wanting to be correct in all things.

Thanks for all the input on this thread!

Sue, I realized something very important when I began writing my first
novel... as much as I read (and have read over the years), I was
ignorant of proper punctuation. I had four years of English in high
school, but what I learned only lasted long enough to pass the term
tests. I had no dreams or ambitions to become a writer.

I asked myself, "As much as I read, why don't I know this?"

The answer was a revelation. Good punctuation is invisible to the reader! We respond to it subconsciously, pausing at commas, stopping at periods and recognizing white paper as a change in scene, but not really seeing it as something to be read.

Fortunately, at the time I began writing the novel, I was also
homeschooling my daughter. The current Language Arts chapter we were
studying was "Punctuation in Dialogue"!

Yeaaa! We both learned a lot that semester...

The next revelation came while editing Keechie for submission.
Having said that good punctuation is invisible, bad punctuation jumps
off the page at me. I may not know what is wrong, but I know when it ain't right!

Write it, read it over, then read it aloud. If it feels right to you,
it will probably be okay with your readers too. Now a hard-nosed editor
may not be so forgiving... lol

An old Yaqui Indian Brujo told me once, "If a man thinks of himself as wise, then his education has not yet begun."

Took me awhile too...

Just consider me as 'experienced in certain areas'.

Phil Whitley wrote:

Good punctuation is invisible to the reader! We respond to it subconsciously, pausing at commas, stopping at periods and recognizing white paper as a change in scene, but not really seeing it as something to be read.

Brew that is brilliant, and I couldn't agree more.

Brew,
you hit the nail on the head. Your realization hit me also but not early enough. I knew what was bad but the good simply went overlooked because it was so well done.

Very true, Brew.
That reminds me of an old song: True Blue Lou.
How come you never hear it anymore?
That reminds me of another: Annie Doesn't Live Here Anymore.
That reminds me of another: The Folks Who Live On The Hill.
Where have all the old songs gone? That reminds me...oh, the heck with it!

Since having that revelation of the 'invisible punctuation', I have
tried to read and be aware of the writing style of the author. If it's
a good book, within two paragraphs I find myself totally engrossed and
forgetting to notice the dad-blamed punctuation. I'm a
sentence-at-a-time speed reader—unless I'm reading aloud—and I think
that is what causes me to not notice.

Maybe I should try a boring (but well-written) book.

Sue, while some of the replies are excellent suggestions about rewording your sentences, you asked about the first two.

You would punctuate with a period because both sentences are indirect questions instead of direct questions.

Grammar and punctuation are pains at times, but if we do them correctly, the reader doesn't have to stop and wonder what the author meant.

Quote :

Grammar and punctuation are pains at times, but
if we do them correctly, the reader doesn't have to stop and wonder
what the author meant.

And what, exactly, did you mean by that, Brenda? Sometimes punctuation alone doesn't do it.

Could you possibly mean that we need to get back on-topic?

I get real nit-picky sometimes. When I edit my Cuba missile book, I find myself getting stuck on grammar and punctuation in Kennedy's speeches. Am I crazy?!!!! His speeches were like none we've heard from a president in decades. They had a wonderful eloquent style which stops my grammar check quite frequently. In his October 22, 1962 speech, he says, "Our will will be tested." Now the grammar check does not like that word used twice at all.

Carol

Me? I'm terrible about wandering around, discussing everything under the sun except the topic.

We cross-posted, Carol.

I loved JFK's speeches, still like to listen. I was only a teen when he was elected, by after the dull, stodgy Eisenhowers, the Kennedys caused a lot of us to become interested in politics for the first time.

I have a retired friend who worked as an editor for a major school book publisher and edits for me once in a while. She is very nit-picky. In my Iowa Born and Bred book, I include information about a Union spy operation during the Civil War called Andrews' Raiders. Mr. Andrews was in charge of this operation. Well, I found some official sites where it was Andrews' Raiders, and others where it was Andrews Raiders, and when I contacted the museum that honors this operation, they said it could be either way except their punctuation was Andrews Raiders without the apostrophe. Well, my friend could not accept that. She told me "you know what is right," and to honor her I put the apostrophe in the book.

Carol

Dull, Stodgy? Are you picking on me again, Brenda?
Ol' Stodgy.

Pick on you, Dick? How could I ever pick on someone whose mind is warped enough to write for Alfred Hitchcock’s magazine? So you’re safe—for now, even if you do come from Ohio.