Eugene Volokh had an interesting post on the proper deployment of punctuation in proximity to quotation marks, particularly in regards to periods and commas. I’ve always been taught to place periods and commas inside of quotes, regardless of whether they actually appeared in the quotes’ sources. Apparently the Brits take the opposite tack, which is the one that I have trended towards in my blogging and which looks more natural to me (i.e., I was taught: ‘”Boy! It sure is hot out here,” she said.’ The Brits do it thusly: ‘”Boy! It sure is hot out here”, she said.’). Volokh gives some background on the issue and he’s got me convinced – I’m going to go with those that speak the Queen’s English and place any and all terminating punctuation not in a quote outside of the quotation marks.
[/English geek mode]
