Do quotes go inside or outside a period

I’ve gotten a lot of emails recently about where to put periods and commas relative to quotation marks. The notes were prompted by a recent column in which I mentioned that, in American English, a period or comma always comes before a closing quote mark (as in “fella.”) rather than after one (as in “fella”.).

The responses I got, and there were quite a few, all made the same point: That’s not logical. Sure, my correspondents conceded, it sometimes makes sense to put a period before a closing quote mark, for example in a sentence like: Joe said, “Take it easy, fella.” But if quotation marks are there just to point out we’re talking about the word “fella,” folks argued, the period should come at the end of the sentence: Joe never uses the word “fella”. Anything else, my correspondents asserted, is illogical.

To which I reply: Who invited logic to the party? If punctuation were logical, we wouldn’t use the same mark for initials as we do to end a sentence, creating a theoretical need for double periods in sentences like: He got his B.A.

If punctuation were logical, we wouldn’t have a mark in book publishing that is nonexistent in news media, the en dash. If punctuation were logical, we wouldn’t use quotation marks to set off “words as words” like “fella” anyway. Some other symbol would do that job.

If punctuation were logical, you wouldn’t see “healthcare laws” in one publication and “health-care laws” in another with both being correct. And we certainly wouldn’t have a system in which “the dog’s” could be either a contraction or a possessive.

Punctuation began as a system of printers’ marks. The idea: to help visually arrange information and guide the eye to where it needs to go. The printers and publishers who shaped the rules here in America believed that a period or comma after a closing quotation mark looked bad. So they decided it should stay inside, logic be damned.

And yes, aesthetics are important. The visuals of a written work should never get in the way of the message. “Ugly” may be subjective; the goal of ensuring that a written work flows visually should be universal.

Whenever I mention the rules about periods and commas with quotation marks, people argue. But to me, that’s a testament to this system. Why? Because the folks who write to me to argue for a more “logical” system all read newspapers. They probably read books too.

This means that they have, countless times, seen commas and periods inside of quotation marks regardless of meaning or logic. Yet this system is so visually unobtrusive that my correspondents never noticed that it’s standard. That’s a good thing.

I’m certain, however, that this system is doomed. In an age where almost everyone’s a writer and a self-publisher, people guess at how to punctuate terms in quotation marks. Naturally, no one guesses that punctuation rules might not be logical.

But until the current rules die, here they are: In the U.S., a period or comma always comes before a closing quotation mark. It doesn’t matter if the quotation marks indicate a direct quotation, a “word as word” or, as is done in some publishing styles, a movie, TV show or song title.

Question marks and exclamation points follow a different rule. They actually are logical: An exclamation point or question mark could come before or after a closing quotation mark, depending on whether it pertains to the whole quotation (Did you notice how often Betty used the word “freedom”?) or just the quoted matter (Alfred E. Neuman’s catchphrase is “What, me worry?”).

These rules don’t apply outside the U.S. In Britain, for example, forms like “fella”. are correct, as logic dictates. But here, for the time being, that’s always a mistake.

JUNE CASAGRANDE is the author of “It Was the Best of Sentences, It Was the Worst of Sentences.” She can be reached at [email protected].

The quick answer is inside the quotation marks, and I didn't even make him wait for this blog! But I wanted to talk a little more about this topic since there are exceptions to everything.

Here are a few basic examples to get you on the right track.

Commas and periods

In the United States, commas and periods go inside the quotation marks. For example:

"I have no idea what you are talking about," Steve said.

"It was a total and unimaginable disaster," Mike said. "I didn't know what to do."

"There isn't anywhere else I'd rather be," Leslie said with a smile.

Exclamation points and question marks

Most of the time, you're going to be correct in following the same rule of thumb as above. But in some cases, exclamation points and question marks must be placed outside of quotation marks if they apply to the whole sentence rather than just the quoted part. For example:

Mike said emphatically, "Steve is awesome!"

"Come on. Is he really that awesome?" Jane said with a sarcastic tone.

Does Jane really not agree with the statement, "Steve is awesome"?

Colons and semicolons

Again, there are different rules here, too. Unlike their counterparts above, colons and semicolons go outside of sentence-ending quotation marks.

Jackson said, "I didn't steal the toy"; this was one situation he wasn't going to get blamed for.

The documents refer to Sally's worst trait as "The Sally Effect": she lies about everything, rarely showers, and can't hold down a decent job.

My personal preference with colons and semicolons is to break up the sentence into smaller chunks when possible. This way, you don't have to bother using them. For example:

Jackson said, "I didn't steal the toy." This was one situation he wasn't going to get blamed for.

The documents refer to Sally's worst trait as "The Sally Effect": she lies about everything, rarely showers, and can't hold down a decent job.

Quotation marks inside quotation marks

This section is slightly off-topic, but it's just as confusing to a lot of people. Always use single quotation marks when quoting something that is inside double quotation marks. For example:

"We tell the kids all the time, 'Control what you can control. The other stuff doesn't matter,'" Frank said. "Thankfully, they do a good job of listening to that advice."

Alicia added, "I couldn't help but say to myself, 'Come on, girl. You've got this.'"

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