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Punctuation and Quotation Marks

Everyone seems to be confused about where to put punctuation when using quotation marks. Yet the rules are simple (if inconsistent):

• Commas and periods always go inside the quotation marks.
• Colons and semicolons always go outside the quotation marks.
• Other punctuation follows the logic of the context.
  If the punctuation is part of the material quoted, it goes inside; if not, it goes outside the quotes.

The most abused is the period; remember, Meryl says:

Additional details on quotation marks, submitted by Kenis Dunne, Pat Egan and Gary Pfitzer, working together at Cisco Systems. Our thanks to them for this cogent addition. We publish these with gratitude and an invitation to others to contribute!

In addition to standard, established rules of punctuation for quoting passages of speech or text, when quotation marks are used to distinguish certain words or terms, punctuation might go outside the closing quotation mark.

In technical writing, examples include strings of code or urls where inclusion of punctuation within quotation marks would confuse the reader. Example: Susan, Senior Engineer, suggested using "x.aaa.yyyyyyyyy", but Sam, Senior Engineer, responded that "w.bbb.xxxxxxx" is better for versions 1.3 and above.

John Smith said, "Check Cisco's web site at http://www.cisco.com" [Omit ending punctuation in this instance, for the sake of clarity.] Another way to handle this example is to place the url in brackets: John Chambers said, "Check Cisco's web site at <http://www.cisco.com>." Using brackets to enclose urls conforms to the Modern Language Association's style guide for citing electronic documentation.

As regards the tip about periods always going inside the quotes, note that you might occasionally encounter a situation in which you need to drop the period:

I really liked the movie "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?"

(You wouldn't write: I really liked the movie "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?.")