American printing convention places the period and the comma always within the quotation marks and colons and semicolons always outside of them.

Thanks, everyone. According to The American Heritage Guide to Contemporary Usage and Style: With other punctuation Put commas and periods inside closing quotation marks; put colons and semicolons outside. Other punctuation, such as exclamation

Jingtian, The New York Times style book says: periods and commas, in American usage, always go inside the closing quotation marks, regardless of grammatical logic. Another source gives this example: ...two complete thoughts joined by

I am of the firm opinion that the period and commas should be placed outside the quotation marks. I definitely agree.

I am the wrong person to answer this, because I am of the firm opinion that the period and commas should be placed outside the quotation marks.

I'm 49 and the more I read the rules for punctuation, the less they make sense. No wonder people say English is the hardest language to learn. So what is the reason for putting a comma inside a quotation mark? Thanks.

Well, I can finally put this one to bed: In The Grammar Bible, which I love as a reference, it states that "the comma and the period go inside the closing quotation marks at all times. There are no exceptions to this rule" (Strumpf and

Well, I can finally put this one to bed: In The Grammar Bible, which I love as a reference, it states that "the comma and the period go inside the closing quotation marks at all times. There are no exceptions to this rule" (Strumpf and

I am looking for suggestions as to how to punctuate a quote within speech. The actual quote is made-up and reads as follows: 'Ne'er ruffled were a calm, clear lake Without a boat the wake to make.' I would like to insert

"Hello", she said. "Hi", he answered. "Hello," she said. (The comma goes inside the quotation marks.) "Hi," he answered. (as above)