Punctuation with “The question is…” ‘.’, ‘?’ or ‘ “… ?” ‘

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Possible Duplicate:
Position of question mark when sentence doesn't end with question

Take this statement for example:

That’s not the question. The question is what was Colonel Mustard doing in the bedroom with the revolver.

or

That’s not the question. The question is what was Colonel Mustard doing in the bedroom with the revolver?

or

That’s not the question. The question is “what was Colonel Mustard doing in the bedroom with the revolver?”

Answer

I’d rather say:

  1. That’s not the question. The question is: What was Colonel Mustard doing in the bedroom with the revolver?

  2. That’s not the question. The question is, what was Colonel Mustard doing in the bedroom with the revolver?

I used a colon or a comma because you’re introducing a question that you are asking. I’ll explain better:

  1. If you use quotes, it means someone else said it.
  2. The second one lacks the colon and it looks bad, because you must put a limit between the statement and the following question. I.E. I was wondering do you have a car? As you see, it makes little sense, unless you say "I was wondering, do you have a car?".

The first one might be used, I guess, because indirect interrogatives might be written as statements.

A small edit about this last sentence above: @Cerberus made me notice that indirect questions are such with no inversion. So I was thinking that if someone could add others point of views, it would be nice, in order to make this point clear for me and others once and for all. Native speakers are particularly welcome!

Attribution
Source : Link , Question Author : gbutters , Answer Author : Alenanno

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