When does the punctuation go outside the quotes

She said: "Oh my God!" although the expression "oh my God", in many cases, can be abbreviated to "OMG". Discuss, with particular reference to the position of the exclamation mark, the comma and the full stop.

Readers on both sides of the Atlantic tend to get excited when this and similar blogs touch on the differences between British and American English. (My last blogpost on the subject attracted 385 comments, a record.)

Both sides are understandably protective of their version of the language, so it was a pleasant surprise to find Ben Yagoda of Slate praising the "logical punctuation" that we are said to use in the UK. Specifically, he notes a "punctuation paradigm shift" away from the traditional US practice of placing commas and full points (periods) inside quotation marks.

He calls moving the punctuation to the right of the quotation marks "the British style", which "rules on message and bulletin boards". Jolly good. It has also been adopted by Wikipedia and the journal of the Linguistic Society of North America.

But wait. We are only too happy to bask in such praise but is it really a simple choice between "the British style" and "the American way"? A trawl through the style guides suggests things are a little more complex than that.

Yagoda argues that a quotation is a unit, consisting of the words and the quotation marks, and that "insinuating a period or comma within the unit alters it in a rather underhanded [sic] manner". The Radio Times stylebook argues, similarly, that the punctuation goes inside the final quotation mark "only if it actually forms part of the quotation", citing the sentence "Everything in the garden is lovely," as a complete unit with its own closing punctuation. All very well, but its suggestion of "Lovely garden", with comma outside the quote because it is a somehow incomplete quotation, raises the question: why, exactly, is it incomplete? "Oh my God!" is, in terms of syntax, an identical exclamation and seems pretty complete to me.

The Guardian style guide, which reflects widespread practice in the UK, says:

Place full points and commas inside the quotes for a complete quoted sentence; otherwise the point comes outside -

"Anna said: 'Your style guide needs updating,' and I said: 'I agree.' "

but: "Anna said updating the guide was 'a difficult and time-consuming task'."

You will note that the first example conforms to American usage. The second example – what Yagoda calls "the British style" – applies only when part of a quotation is given (a practice we try to discourage, as it makes it look as if the reporter has had a shorthand malfunction and failed to write down the whole thing).

There is a third way, which combines the first two.

When beginning a quote with a sentence fragment that is followed by a full sentence, punctuate according to the final part of the quote -

The minister called the allegations "blatant lies. But in a position such as mine, it is only to be expected."

Slate would presumably expect us to render this as follows:

The minister called the allegations "blatant lies. But in a position such as mine, it is only to be expected".

We don't. Indeed, the very sight of that full stop outside the quote makes me shudder.

Wikipedia, which claims to bat for Britain on this subject, gives the following misleading advice:

"Carefree," in general, means "free from care or anxiety." (American practice)

"Carefree", in general, means "free from care or anxiety". (British practice)

Not so. The Guardian would follow the so-called American practice, and I think many British publications would agree with us.

The Economist style guide, which has a substantial and generally helpful section on American and British English, claims: "The British convention is to place such punctuation according to sense." Which makes sense, until you think about it, and realise it is meaningless.

The Telegraph style guide advises simply that quotes introduced with a colon end with the full stop inside the quotation mark: "Like this." Quotes without a colon end with the quotation mark inside the full stop, "like this".

The debate about "logical punctuation" suggests two things. First, there is nothing very logical about it. As with so many aspects of language, what you use tends to be the result of a battle between what you were taught, and what you like the look of. Second, British and American English have more in common than people sometimes think. And you can quote me on that.

Dear APA,

I’m quoting from a couple of different sources in my APA Style paper, and I can’t figure out what to do with all the quotation marks and periods and commas. Do I put the period inside or outside the quotation marks? What about question marks and quotation marks? I’ve been told so many different things over the years that the answers have just blurred together. Please help!

—Quizzical in Queens

Dear Quizzical,

We’re not surprised that you have been told different ways to punctuate over the years, because there do indeed exist different practices in the world. On the upside, if you are writing an APA Style paper, we have some nice, straightforward solutions for you.

To begin, let’s take a brief look at the two punctuation systems you’ve probably encountered, which are called American style (or North American Style) and British style.

Here is a quick chart of the differences:

*Place other punctuation inside quotation marks when that punctuation is part of what is being quoted, such as a quoted question.

As you might guess from our name, APA Style uses American style punctuation (see p. 92 of the 6th ed. Publication Manual), as do several other major style guides (such as AP, Chicago, and MLA). The table below elaborates, with examples for each punctuation mark.

As a final note, we’d like to say that we realize APA Style is used in many places across the world that may not usually follow American style punctuation rules and that not all fields or publishers in the United States and Canada use American style punctuation. Does this mean that you should change to American style punctuation when you’re writing an APA Style paper? If you’re writing for publication with APA or you’ve been told to “follow the APA Publication Manual,” then the answer is yes. However, if you typically use British style punctuation (or some other style) and you have doubts about what to do, check with your publisher or professor to find out their preference.

We hope that this clears up how to punctuate around those quotation marks in your APA Style paper.

Quotably yours, 

Chelsea Lee

Why do people put punctuation outside of quotes?

What punctuation goes outside quotations?