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In my report a need to write a list of example questions that someone might ask, but I would like to do it in a sentence rather than a separate list. Here is an example:

This poses questions such as "How should I punctuate it?", "Are the quotes necessary?", "Are the commas in the correct place?", and "Should I have used a colon, or a semi-colon?"

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I'd use a bulleted list and drop the quotation marks, like so:

This poses questions such as:

  • How should I punctuate it?
  • Are the quotes necessary?
  • Are the commas in the correct place?
  • Should I have used a colon, or a semi-colon?

Such formatting would look out of place in a novel or other prose, but would look very natural online or in some technical document. While I may be a product of my time, I think bulleted lists are an excellent way to break up a list of items and does so without a bunch of cluttering punctuation.

In cases where a bulleted list would be out of place, I'd suggest using a colon and ditching the quotation marks, like so:

This poses questions such as: How should I punctuate it? Are the quotes necessary? Are the commas in the correct place? Should I have used a colon, or a semi-colon?

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    Thanks for the suggestion Scott but I was wondering how I could go about doing it inside of a sentence as a bulleted list would indeed look out of place in my report ;)
    – Daniel
    Jan 20, 2011 at 5:48
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    @Daniel: I added my suggestion for scenarios where a bulleted list would be out of place.
    – Scott Mitchell
    Jan 20, 2011 at 16:56
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    Sorry to be nit-picky, but I was taught that if you use a colon, the sentence before the colon should be complete, so your example should be This poses questions such as the following: How should I.... Correct me if I'm wrong.
    – RustyTheBoyRobot
    Oct 12, 2012 at 21:35
  • @Daniel if a bulleted is the best solution but it would look out of place in your report then either there is something wrong with your audience or you just need to be bolder. I can't think of professional English-speaking audience that would be put off by a bulleted list. Quite the contrary, in fact, if you write long-winded prose the senior people simply will not read it TL;DNR
    – Aethelbald
    Sep 29, 2018 at 19:26
  • @Aethelbald Where did you get that idea? From Powerpoint? Like it or not, bulleted lists have no place in sentences; certainly not in English and prolly not in any other language.
    – Robbie Goodwin
    15 hours ago
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Quotation marks are not required in lists of questions within a sentence unless they are a direct quotation. Only rhetorical, self posed, or internal questions require a question mark. For example:

She thought, Shall I go to work? To the mall? Home?

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    Welcome to EL&U. There's nothing wrong with your answer as such. But it doesn't really add much to the earlier answer by Scott Mitchell, so I doubt it will attract any votes. You might consider using Comments for minor additional points to older questions.
    – FumbleFingers
    May 18, 2011 at 18:19
  • We are told that comments have very minor status in ELU; they are excluded from RSS feeds, for instance. I recommend adding additional points by editing (or proposing an edit) to a question, rather than attaching them as comments.
    – MetaEd
    Jan 27, 2012 at 0:16
  • I see no alternative in cases of ambiguity. See my comment on Joel's answer.
    – ACProctor
    Apr 29, 2019 at 10:47
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Here's how I would write it:

This poses questions such as “How should I punctuate it,” “Are the quotes necessary,” “Are the commas in the correct place,” and “Should I have used a colon, or a semi-colon?”

I would say that the more important punctuation mark here is the comma, and you can't have both. Since the questions are obviously questions even without a question mark, and since you are referring to the questions as objects rather than invoking them as queries, it's OK to lose the question marks.

For example, you could imagine

The interview consisted of the usual "Where did you go to school" kind of question.

There is no need for a question mark here because you are using "Where did you go to school" as the name of a question to which you are referring, rather than as the question itself.

To some extent, though, your choice here is going to depend on what tone and cadence you want the reader to imagine in their head. Putting in the question marks will cause the reader to pause and raise their inner voices as if reading a question, which will have the effect of putting more emphasis on the specific question. Leaving out the question marks will cause the reader to rush through the list without pausing or imagining a question, which will have the effect of de-emphasizing the questions. So it's up to you what kind of melody you want the prose to have.

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    I have this problem now: a list of posed questions. I had come to the conclusion that quotes were best because (a) you need unambiguous list control (commas/semicolons, and 'and/or'), (b) the questions may involve punctuation of their own, and (c) the overall sentence may be a question. For instance, "This raises questions such as do xyz, are xyz, and when do xyz, but are these questions valid?" If you don't want bullet lists then quoting the embedded questions removes the potential ambiguities, but I wasn't sure about dropping the question marks. Might they remove potential ambiguities?
    – ACProctor
    Apr 29, 2019 at 10:43
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There is a rule that says if a question appears in direct quotation and this immediately ends in a sentence, the question mark should be preserved and the period omitted.

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  • +1 I didn't notice the period until I read your answer.
    – Tragicomic
    Jan 20, 2011 at 6:51
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    Totally correct. It's a bit late, but the period has been removed ;-)
    – Daniel
    May 18, 2011 at 7:36
0

The way you have it is good. But if you're supposed to be following some house style, then read the manual.

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