Do commas and periods go inside or outside the closing quotation mark?
According to American usage (which differs from the British style), commas and periods go inside the closing quotation mark. Other punctuation marks (such as question marks, colons, and semicolons) go inside or outside, depending on whether they are part of the quoted material. Some writers and language experts argue that commas and periods, when not part of the quoted material, are more logically placed outside the closing quotation mark. Standard American usage, however, is based on the notion that placing commas and periods within the closing quotation mark causes no significant confusion or ambiguity.
