SAT Conventions — ending the sentence: direct and embedded questions

A sentence ends with a question mark only when it asks something. That sounds simple until a question is reported inside a statement ("the astronomer wondered whether ..."), quoted in someone's words, or asked after a colon. The Boundaries skill of the SAT includes choosing the right mark at the end of a sentence, and these are the situations where students most often put a question mark where a period belongs, or the reverse.

The ten quiz questions each print one original sentence, or a pair of sentences, about science or American history and ask which change makes it conform to the conventions of Standard English. The options describe each repair in words, such as replacing the question mark with a period or moving it outside the closing quotation mark. Four sentences contain indirect questions, introduced by wondered whether, still debate why, nobody knows when and asked whether: they end with a period, and one of them also needs its word order changed from question order to statement order. Two contain direct questions that need a question mark, one after a colon and one as the second of two sentences. Three deal with quotations: a quoted question that ends the sentence and needs no extra period, a quoted question followed by the speaker that takes no comma, and a whole sentence that asks about a quoted statement, where American usage puts the question mark outside the quotation marks. One pair of sentences, a direct question followed by a statement, is already correct.

The flashcards contrast direct and indirect questions, give the word-order test for embedded questions, and set out where the question mark goes in each quotation pattern.

The material offers two formats: a multiple-choice quiz with an explanation for every question, and a deck of flashcards. It is practice material written by Zestly and is not affiliated with or endorsed by the College Board, which owns the SAT.

• Distinguish direct questions from indirect (embedded) questions
• End a sentence containing an indirect question with a period and use statement word order inside it
• Punctuate a direct question after a colon
• Place a question mark inside or outside quotation marks according to American usage
• Avoid doubled terminal marks and stray commas after a quoted question

Practice material written by Zestly, based on the Standard English Conventions content domain of the digital SAT Reading and Writing section as described by the College Board on satsuite.collegeboard.org (Boundaries). Every sentence, option and explanation is original; nothing is reproduced from any College Board publication or practice test.