I had a less specific, more general work life blog planned, but I came across one of my biggest punctuation pet peeves today on a company’s website (not ours, obviously): a period outside the quotation mark.
Punctuation and quotation marks are a lot like English grammar: the rules are inconsistent. But they also aren’t that hard. If you’re writing a sentence that includes a quote, or a word or phrase in quotation marks, there are three general rule categories that dictate where to put the punctuation mark(s):
Always Inside
Closing periods and commas always—always—go inside the quotation mark. The structure of the sentence or quote has no effect on this rule, whether or not the period is part of the quote or part of the sentence.
Examples:
Scott said, “I’ll be back from my meeting at three.”
In this case, we’re quoting an entire sentence, so it makes more logical sense to put the period inside the quotation mark anyway. And you’d be right.
Scott said his meeting went “mostly well.”
This time, “mostly well” isn’t a complete sentence, and the period is designating the end of the sentence that contains this small phrase. So it might make more logical sense to put the period outside the quotation mark—but you’d be wrong. It goes inside.
Scott said his meeting went “well,” but that he isn’t sure how much work we’ll get from the client.
Again, the comma isn’t part of the quoted word itself, but…it’s just the rules. I didn’t make them, I just follow them.
Always Outside
For every action, there is an equal and…you get the idea. All the more “unusual” punctuation marks—colons, semicolons, asterisks, dashes—go outside the quotation marks. Always.
Examples
Scott said something about being “better prepared”; all the meeting agendas are now printed and stapled ten minutes before we walk out the door.
The blog post I wrote this week is entitled “Say It Right”—please see that you follow its advice.
This is what I mean by “follow up”: call your media contact regarding your email, and make sure they received it and answer any questions they may have.
Pretty straightforward—the nature of these punctuation marks doesn’t call for them ever being a part of a quote, unless the quote goes beyond that punctuation (e.g., Scott Harris’s book is entitled, “RoadMap: A Guide to a Successful Strategic Marketing Plan.”).
It Depends!
It wouldn’t be a writing rule without a little leeway, would it? When using question marks or exclamation points, you need to listen to that logic and determine if the punctuation is a part of what’s being quoted or the original sentence. If the former, keep it inside the quotation marks; if the latter, put it on the outside.
Examples
Dianne asked, “What time does the meeting start?”
Dianne asked a question, so the question mark is part of what she said—the quoted material. It goes on the inside.
Why did Chris ask if I knew the meaning of the word “deadline”?
In this case, the quoted word/phrase isn’t a question—the sentence itself is asking a question about the quoted material. So the punctuation goes on the outside.
One of Danny’s favorite movies is “Moulin Rouge!”
The movie Moulin Rouge! actually has an exclamation point as part of its title—inside.
Danny actually used the word “perfect”!
The word “perfect” here, nor the quote, utilizes the exclamation point, but rather the context of the quote—the original sentence—is what asks for an exclamation point. Outside it is!
**NOTE: If you happen to find yourself in the UK, disregard these rules: they stick to the “logic” rule with all punctuation marks.