Quotation Marks & End Punctuation

This week's tip comes from an excerpt of The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation by Jane Straus. You can view additional tips or purchase the book at this website: http://www.grammarbook.com.

Do you have a hard time deciding where to place punctuation marks when using a quotation at the end of a sentence? Should the period be placed inside or outside the quotation marks? What about question marks? The following tips from The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation should clear this up once and for all!

Rule 1. Periods and commas always go inside quotation marks, even inside single quotes.

Examples
The sign changed from "Walk," to "Don't Walk," to "Walk" again within 30 seconds.
She said, "Hurry up."
She said, "He said, 'Hurry up.'"

(Please note the following clarification from The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation Newsletter: If you live in England or any country that uses England's rules for grammar, punctuation, and spelling, you would use logic, placing the punctuation inside only if it applies to the quoted material. Example: The sign changed from "Walk", to "Don't Walk", to "Walk".)

Rule 2. The placement of question marks with quotes follows logic. If a question is in quotation marks, the question mark should be placed inside the quotation marks.

Examples
She asked, "Will you still be my friend?"
Do you agree with the saying, "All's fair in love and war"? 
Here the question is outside the quote.

NOTE: Only one ending punctuation mark is used with quotation marks. Also, the stronger punctuation mark wins. Therefore, no period after war is used.

Rule 3. When you have a question outside quoted material AND inside quoted material, use only one question mark and place it inside the quotation mark.

Example
Did she say, "May I go?" ¹

I can hear you saying, "How will I remember these rules, Angela?" Well, if you live in the U.S. or certain parts of Canada, end punctuation marks are almost always placed inside quotation marks. Just visualize the pair of quotation marks scooping up those periods, commas, question marks, and exclamation points. The exception occurs when the entire sentence is a question but the quoted material is not; then the question mark is placed outside the quotation marks.

Do you believe the saying, "You can't teach an old dog new tricks"?

I certainly hope not!

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¹  The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation, n.d.,

  <http://www.grammarbook.com/punctuation/quotes.asp>,
  accessed on October 10, 2006. Published with permission.