College Composition / Unit 8 CMP 0186 short lesson, about 20 seconds
Punctuation Inside and Outside Quotation Marks
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The idea
In American usage, periods and commas go inside closing quotation marks; colons and semicolons go outside.
In practice
Question marks and exclamation points go inside only if they belong to the quotation: "She asked, “What time is it?”" but "Have you read “The Lottery”?"
Where people slip
With a parenthetical citation, the period follows the citation, after the closing quotation mark.
Your place on the trail
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