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According to the Chicago Manual of Style (14th ed.), 1a and 2a
represent American usage. 1b and 2b represent British usage.
See sections 5.11 and 5.13.
So if you're American or British, the choice is easy. I'm in
Canada, so I get to pick which one I like best ;-)
Personally, I prefer the British method. If the punctuation isn't
part of the quote, then it doesn't go inside the quotation marks!
Penny Staples
pstaples -at- airwire -dot- com
----------
> From: DIGEST Barbara Diorio <BarbD33 -at- AOL -dot- COM>
> To: TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU
> Subject: "xxx." or "xxx".
> Date: September 18, 1997 10:27 PM
>
> Five technical writers, one office, two opinions. When a sentence ends
with
> a word in quotation marks, do you put the punctuation (period or comma -
we
> agree on the other punctuation marks) inside the quotation marks or
outside
> the quotation marks? The various guides that we checked all indicated
that
> 1a and 2a (below) are correct, but some of the writers swear that they
were
> taught to follow 1b and 2b. What do you think?
>
> 1a. "Tell me what you think," said Barb.
> 1b. "Tell me what you think", said Barb.
>
> 2a. Each fix is moved to the restricted area by a "gatekeeper."
> 2b. Each fix is moved to the restricted area by a "gatekeeper".
>
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