Periods and Commas After Quotation Marks

 

Amateur editing has lots of tells. But in American English, none is more reliable than a comma or period after a closing quotation mark. Here's and example of the error.

John can't spell the word "embarrass", and he also has trouble with "supersede".

In AP, Chicago, New York Times, L.A. Times, MLA, APA and every other style in the country, both the comma and the period should come before the closing quotation mark, not after. No one other than professional editors seems to know that.

Exclamation points and question marks, however, follow different rules. An exclamation point or question mark could go before or after a closing quotation mark, depending on whether it modifies the whole sentence or only the quoted portion.

Alfred E. Neuman's catch phrase is "What, me worry?"

Is Bart Simpson's catch phrase "Ay, caramba"?

As you've probably noticed, though, amateur editing is winning. Thanks to the Internet, its far more prevalent than the professional kind. It's probably just a matter of time until the popular way becomes the right way. And Wikipedia is hastening the process because its style is to treat periods and commas the same way we treat question marks and exclamation points.

But until the rule books change, one of the best ways to set your writing head and shoulders above the masses' is by never putting a comma or period after a closing quotation mark.

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One Response to “Periods and Commas After Quotation Marks”

  1. Grr! I always find myself making this mistake and overthinking it. This was a good reminder to always, always, always put commas and periods inside of quotation marks. Like you said, that Internet is training our brains to think otherwise and eventually the wrong way will become the normal way.