When the sentence starts with "The question is"

Marjatta · Oct 15, 2009

Hi All,

I'm a transcriptionist, but am stumped as to the best way to punctuate a sentence when a speaker says:

The question is how will we be able to accomplish this task

or

After much research, we are still faced with what should we do about this problem

In the past, I've been transcribing the sentences like this as:

The question is: how will we be able to accomplish this task?

and

After much research, we are still faced with: what should we do about this problem?

It just doesn't feel right to me to not have the colon in there because then the sentence doesn't make sense. It's not a questioning statement. It's merely stating that this was the question.

Your thoughts?

Thanks so much,

Marjatta
(desparately needing some Grammar 101)

maestrowork · Oct 15, 2009

I would either use the colon or enclose the question in quotes.

BlackBriar · Oct 15, 2009

maestrowork said:
I would either use the colon or enclose the question in quotes.

What about semicolons?

maestrowork · Oct 15, 2009

CupofDice said:
What about semicolons?

Nope.

bonitakale · Oct 15, 2009

Yeah, the colon seems to work best. That second sentence is terrible, but people do speak like that, more's the pity. The problem comes in trying to punctuate correctly something that's incorrect to begin with.

poetinahat · Oct 15, 2009

Further options:

"After much research, we are still faced with the issue of what to do about this problem."

"After much research, we still must decide what to do about this problem."

Marjatta · Oct 15, 2009

Thanks everyone! That really helps!

M

HelloKiddo · Oct 16, 2009

If you take a look at my signature you'll see how Lewis Carroll dealt with this problem.

Marjatta · Oct 18, 2009

Thank you, HelloKiddo!

M

Sage · Oct 18, 2009

Marjatta, I just had a similar problem. I've never had any problems ending a sentence like your first one with a period, but I found a place in my WIP where my MC was rambling on and stuck a question in the middle of a sentence of things she was worrying about. I think in the end, I separated it out, or at least ended with it, but it didn't look right in the middle of the sentence with no question mark.

cptwentworth · Oct 18, 2009

I also do transcription (court reporter) and my heart goes out to you. Peoplespeak is horrid, and it's impossible to correctly punctuate an "unpunctuateable" sentence at times.

My favorite example of how punctuation changes meaning:

A woman without her man is nothing.

OR

A woman: without her, man is nothing.

maestrowork · Oct 19, 2009

That said, do not use the colon in dialogue, or semicolon for that matter. Use commas instead.

Do it the way Lewis Carroll did, if you must.

Manix · Oct 19, 2009

cptwentworth said:
I also do transcription (court reporter) and my heart goes out to you. Peoplespeak is horrid, and it's impossible to correctly punctuate an "unpunctuateable" sentence at times.

My favorite example of how punctuation changes meaning:

A woman without her man is nothing.

OR

A woman: without her, man is nothing.

Nicely illustrated.

john barnes on toast · Oct 19, 2009

I just use inverted commas.

dpaterso · Oct 19, 2009

john barnes on toast said:
I just use inverted commas.

It's been a while since I heard anyone refer to quotation marks as inverted commas. School, maybe. Not sure how you'd use them with the examples given above.

-Derek

john barnes on toast · Oct 19, 2009

dpaterso said:
It's been a while since I heard anyone refer to quotation marks as inverted commas. School, maybe. Not sure how you'd use them with the examples given above.

-Derek

Like this:

The question is 'how will we be able to accomplish this task'

When the sentence starts with "The question is"

Marjatta

maestrowork

Fear the Death Ray

BlackBriar

Bricoleur

maestrowork

Fear the Death Ray

bonitakale

poetinahat

Numbers are beautiful

Marjatta

HelloKiddo

bemused observer

Marjatta

Sage

Our Lady of Parentheticals

cptwentworth

Did you hear that?!?

maestrowork

Fear the Death Ray

Manix

Mutatis mutandis

john barnes on toast

dpaterso

Also in our Discord and IRC chat channels

john barnes on toast