The content of these guidelines is taken from the third edition of the Vives University Network’s Interuniversity Style Guide for Writing Institutional Texts, an interuniversity project in which the UPC participates with the support of the Secretariat for Universities and Research of the Government of Catalonia.
Direct questions
- Place a question mark at the end of any sentence that is a direct question.
Who wrote that report?
- If the question is a direct quotation, repeating the speaker's exact words, a question mark is still used.
"Who wrote that report?" she asked.
Indirect questions
- Do not use a question mark in an indirect question, in which the speaker's exact words are not repeated.
- Use only a full stop, since the whole sentence is now a statement.
She asked who had written that report.
Courtesy questions
- If a request or instruction is put as a question for reasons of courtesy, do not use a question mark.
Would you please fill in and sign the attached application and submit it before the end of the month.
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