Does the end quotation go before or after the period?

Question

I was taught in school, when I was growing up, that the ending quotation mark always goes after the period. However, in college, I'm noticing that's not always what is happening. Same as when I sometimes read news articles. For example:
She took her to the party, and she remembered saying, "have fun."

I've seen it as:
She took her to the party and she remembered saying, "have fun".

There are others that I can't think of examples for. I'd ask a prof., but it's summer so there's no school.
Also is grammar use different in classes like philosophy. I now basically put commas wherever there's a pause. Any tips for proper comma usage?

Usenet · Accepted Answer

[nq:1]I was taught in school, when I was growing up, that the ending quotation mark always goes after the period. ... different in classes like philosophy. I now basically put commas wherever there's a pause. Any tips for proper comma usage?[/nq]
The FAQ written for the newsgroup alt.usage.english is a good place to begin to look for answers to such questions. In this case, the FAQ suggests consulting different style guides depending upon whether you wish to follow American English or British English usage. It suggests, at

http://alt-usage-english.org/intro d.shtml#Quotationmarks

the following:
(quote)
US
Handbook of Style, Merriam-Webster
http://www.mae.ucsd.edu/mw/Mwed00125.html
http://www.mae.ucsd.edu/mw/Mwed00126.html
UK
The Guardian Unlimited Style Guide
http://www.guardian.co.uk/styleguide/page/0,5817,184823,00.html

(end quote)
Some Americans, including some computer programmers, are offended by the American method and imitate the British. I myself and I've been an amateur computer programmer find little advantage to this and prefer following the traditional American usage.

Raymond S. Wise
Minneapolis, Minnesota USA
E-mail: mplsray @ yahoo . com

Usenet · Answer

As a British computer programmer I use the British convention.

It seems to be a matter of style and convention rather than logic. I would consider the British method fractionally more logical than the American. However, they are both "illogical" because they each omit a period/full-stop from the end of a sentence.
This would be logical: 'He said "This is a complete sentence.".'.

Three sentences, three sentence capitals, three periods.

Peter Duncanson
UK
(posting from a.e.u)

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]that's articles. The FAQ written for the newsgroup alt.usage.english is ... little advantage to this and prefer followingthe traditional American usage.[/nq]
[nq:1]As a British computer programmer I use the British convention. It seems to be a matter of style and convention ... said "This is a complete sentence.".'. Three sentences, three sentence capitals, three periods. Peter Duncanson UK (posting from a.e.u)[/nq]
See Michael Quinion's article in his World Wide Words Web page in which he explains why there is only one apostrophe in "shan't":

http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-sha3.htm

Raymond S. Wise
Minneapolis, Minnesota USA
E-mail: mplsray @ yahoo . com

Usenet · Answer

Quite.

Peter Duncanson
UK
(posting from a.e.u)

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]I was taught in school, when I was growing up, that the endingquotation mark always goes after the period. However, ... grammar use different in classes like philosophy. Inow basically put commas wherever there's a pause. Any tips for proper commausage?[/nq]
The whole business of putting the period or comma inside the quotes is mostly aesthetic, because the when it's placed after the quote, it looks isolated, instead of snuggled up to the preceding letter, like it ought to be. An exception is made for taller punctuation marks, such as colons, semicolons, question marks and exclamation points, simply because of the shape of the mark, because they are adjacent to the quote mark, and the visual effect is less jarring.
Some of the posts have discussed this in terms of "logic," from the perspective of a programmer. And indeed, some style manuals, especially those on technical writing, mention that when the quoted material is describing something you type into a computer, it's usually necessary, for the sake of clarity, to put punctuation marks outside the quotes. For example:

To display the directory, type "DIR".
The period is outside the quote, because it's not part of the command. Or this one:
To change to the parent directory, type "CD ..".
Many technical manuals use some other typographic convention for clarity for command and data input, such as using a contrasting color for such text. (The use of boldface or italics won't help much, because it's hard to tell if a period is bold and impossible if italic.) In such cases, the quote marks are eliminated altogether, especially if the command language happens to include use of quotes or apostrophes.
Of course, such considerations don't apply in the normal case of quoting spoken language, because no one speaks punctuation marks, anyway, except for the late Victor Borge.

Does the end quotation go before or after the period?

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