American Grammar Checkup: Quotation Marks

But many words are spelled differently, usage is much different, and one of the most obvious differences in terms of working with punctuation marks is the use of quotation marks, especially with periods and commas.

I can’t say our system makes complete sense — because it doesn’t. But for those who want or need to know what’s considered correct, here you go!

• We use double quotation marks alone, never singles. 
• We use single quotation marks only inside doubles. 
• We put commas and periods inside / before final quotation marks, even if we’re only quoting the last word(s) in a sentence. Yes, to many, it looks weird. Can’t help it. It’s our system. 
• We put colons and semicolons after / behind final quotation marks. 
• We put question marks and exclamation marks either before or after final quotation marks, depending on how the quoted material was said. The ? and the ! go inside if the quoted words were said with special emphasis. If they were not, we put them after / outside. 

Now you know. :-)

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