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by Spixxy on February 4th, 2004

Spixxy

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Does a period go inside or outside of quotation marks?

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  • by Aminor on June 9th, 2005

    Aminor

    The Standard English rule, still observed by careful writers and editors, is that in American English commas and periods go inside the closing quotation mark; question marks, exclamation marks, and other marks stay outside. In British English everything goes inside or outside strictly according to the logic of the quoted matter and the enclosing sentence. The British rule is appealing (nothing special to remember) but that's life.

    Although that's the American rule, the rule is taking a pummeling from, among other things, the coming of URLs and printed computer instructions -- writers are reluctant to risk having a period or comma mistaken for part of what you're supposed to type in a particular case. There are also cases where the demand for strict accuracy may trump standard usage, such as quotations in legal matter or academic citations, both of which have their own, non-simple rules. Strunk and White (The Elements of Style), brief, compact, and entertaining, is the resource of choice for questions like this.

    Comments

    • Absolutely correct as far as British / Canadian grammar is concerned.

      RedJohn

      by RedJohn on September 27th, 2005

    • In America we learn to put all marks inside the quotation mark if and only if its a part of the quote. And we are more than welcome to finish sentences with the quotation mark. If the punctuation mark is not part of the quote, it stays outside. It seems perfectly logical to me.

      CogitoErgoCogitoSum

      by CogitoErgoCogitoSum on August 11th, 2008

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