[98a.] Place a question mark after a direct question, but not after an indirect question.
- Wrong: What of it. What does it matter.
- Right: What of it? What does it matter?
- Wrong: He asked whether I belonged to the glee club?
- Right: He asked whether I belonged to the glee club.
[Note.]—When the main sentence which introduces an indirect question is itself interrogatory, a question mark follows.
- Right: Did she inquire whether you had met her aunt?
[b.] A question mark is often used within a sentence, but should not be followed by a comma, semicolon, or period.
- Wrong: "What shall I do?," he asked.
- Right: "What shall I do?" he asked.
- Wrong: But where are the stocks?, the bonds?, the evidences of prosperity?
- Right: But where are the stocks? the bonds? the evidences of prosperity?
[c.] A question mark within parentheses may be used to express uncertainty as to the correctness of an assertion.
- Right: Shakespeare was born April 23 (?), 1564.
- Right: In 1340 (?) was born Geoffrey Chaucer.
[d.] The use of a question mark as a label for humor or irony is childish.
- Superfluous: Immediately the social lion (?) rose to his feet.
- Better: Immediately the social lion rose to his feet.