How to Use Question Marks

A question mark is, unsurprisingly, a piece of punctuation that is used to mark the end of a question.

How are you?

It also has a much less common use that would be more often seen in non-fiction than in fiction writing. A question mark, inside of a set of brackets, is used to denote that the writer is unsure about the statement.

Open heart surgery isn’t that complicated (?).

Note that when used in this way, it is preceded by a space and is proceeded by normal punctuation such as a full stop.

You don’t need to need a question mark if the question is something that is being reported.

He asked how I was.

Question marks a relatively simple and common but it’s not too uncommon to see mistakes happen and, because of its simplicity and commonality, mistakes with question marks are rarely forgiven in the writing industry.