I wonder...

whether it's just me that has a strange obsession, or whether everyone is losing the ability to write correct English.

A short while ago, a copy editor - and experienced journalist - tried to add a question mark to piece I'd been commissioned to write. He tried to add it to a sentence beginnning 'I wonder...'. Today, I read a piece in The Guardian that similarly has an 'I wonder...' terminated with a question mark.

A sentence beginning 'I wonder' is not a direct question. It merely describes the question, it does not ask it. It is an indirect question and does not take a question mark.

This particular misuse of English grammar is fast beginning to aggravate me as much as the comma joining two independent sentences, the latter being a bugbear ever since the girl sitting at a neighbouring desk at school joined absolutely all her sentences with commas (she went on to become a manager at BT).