How should I write "Why questions"?
I would like to know how to properly write, somewhere in a paragraph, the phrase "Why questions". By which I mean questions of the form "Why... ?".
The sentence I would like to write is "How to answer why questions." How do I format it?
Possibilities:
- How to answer why questions.
- How to answer why questions.
- How to answer why? questions.
- How to answer 'why' questions.
- How to answer "why" questions.
- How to answer "why?" questions.
I thought 3 would be best but I would appreciate a second (third, etc.) opinion.
Solution 1:
I would write it this way:
How to answer "Why" questions.
It really doesn't matter grammatically. There are no rules about this kind of thing. It's strictly a style choice. I use a capital "W" because most "Why" questions begin with "Why", and sentences like "I wonder why the sky is blue" and "He asked me why I liked her" aren't "Why" questions.
Solution 2:
It depends on what you're talking about, and how formal you're being.
I would normally use
- Wh-questions
when talking about any phenomenon that applied to all such questions, not just Why.
By the same token, if there were something specific to
- Why-questions
(e.g, embedded Why-questions don't allow reduction with relative infinitives, the way how does)
- How to mention the matter is the issue.
- *Why to mention the matter is the issue.
then that's how I'd do it.
Of course, I try to be fairly formal when discussing grammar; your mileage may vary.