When do quotations go on the inside of periods

For example:. In technical writing or even in daily life, you may find situations where someone needs to input a specific word or phrase into a computer.

If you include the punctuation in the quoted section, this may cause the user to input the punctuation as well as the actual word or phrase. In this case, put the punctuation outside the quotes, as in these examples:. In American English, the general rule for question marks and exclamation marks or points is this: If the quoted material ends with a question mark or an exclamation mark, the punctuation should be inside the quotation marks. However, if the question mark or exclamation mark is not directly part of the quote, then the punctuation should go outside the quotation marks.

As you can see here, if the quote itself is an exclamation or question, the punctuation mark is contained within the quotation marks:. If the quoted words are embedded within a sentence that is an exclamation or question, then the punctuation goes outside the quotation marks, like this:.

There are certain punctuation marks that always go outside quotation marks. Here, both American and British English follow the same rule. Punctuation marks that go outside are:. The following are rules for punctuating inside closing quotation marks according to the standard American style guides :. Knowing whether punctuation goes inside or outside of closing quotation marks is an important rule to learn and follow.

With some practice , you will soon be punctuating your quotations with ease. Using punctuation properly can make your writing more credible and convey what you intend to portray to the reader more easily. All rights reserved. Incorrect Punctuation of Two Independent Clauses. Misuse of the Apostrophe. Misplaced and Dangling Modifiers. Pronoun Problems. The Dreaded Pet Peeves. Faculty Resources. Here, you have three options: 1. When the quotation is merged into a clause, no punctuation is necessary to divide them.

Comma is within the quotation marks; the period follows the citation. Writing Center Kirner-Johnson Close Search Hamilton. About Expand Navigation. Know Thyself. Just the Facts. Our Region. Our Diverse Community. Admission Expand Navigation. Our Promise. Financial Aid. Meet Our Staff. Request Information. Academics Expand Navigation. Study What You Love.

Areas of Study. Our Faculty. ALEX Advising. Student Research. Off-Campus Study. Campus Life Expand Navigation. You might even manage to confuse your word processing program. But if you do it like this, everything will look much better:. Titles of books, albums, magazines, newspapers, and other standalone and bigger bodies of work are usually italicized.

Poems, chapters, articles—smaller bodies of work, or bodies of work which form a larger body of work—are emphasized by using quotation marks. You can also use quotation marks to signify words used as words. Some writers put quotes around words they want to distance themselves from. Quotation marks used this way are commonly called scare quotes or shudder quotes.

Scare quotes are sort of like air quotes, and if you know anything about air quotes, you know that they should be used in moderation. The same applies to scare quotes.

You might see quotation marks used instead of parentheses for translations. So you can write translations like this:. You can also see single quotation marks instead of double quotation marks in headlines of newspaper articles. And of course, all of these rules apply to American English—single vs. Real-time suggestions, wherever you write. Quotation Marks Marko Ticak.