Punctuating Around Quotation Marks

The following post is adapted and quotes from this APA Style Blog post by Chelsea Lee. Her post begins by explaining the difference between American and British styles of puncutation. It’s helpful for student writers to notice this, especially when you are reading books written and/or published in the United Kingdom. Let’s take a look:

 

Style issue	American Style	British Style
To enclose a quotation, use…	Double quotation marks	Single quotation marks
To enclose a quotation within a quotation, use…	Single quotation marks	Double quotation marks
Place periods and commas…	Inside quotation marks	Outside quotation marks
Place other punctuation (colons, semi-colons, question marks, etc.)…	Outside quotation marks*	Outside quotation marks*

*Place other punctuation inside quotation marks when that punctuation is part of what is being quoted, such as a quoted question.

No matter which style guide you are working from–APA Style, Chicago, MLA–you’ll be using American-style punctuation. If someone gets this wrong in a draft, why I usually mark in my Word comments is the following:

Quotations, punctuation inside.  Periods and commas go inside “quotation marks.”  In England, it’s “outside”.  But we live in the USA!  “Hooray!”

(I try to keep it light, as you can see.) Lee’s blog post has another table, which I am quoting in full. I hope this explains many of the confusions regarding punctuation in- or outside punctuation marks.

Punctuation mark	In relation to closing quotation mark, place it…	Example	Notes
Period	Inside	Participants who kept dream diaries described themselves as “introspective” and “thoughtful.”
Comma	Inside	Many dream images were characterized as “raw,” “powerful,” and “evocative.”
Parentheses	Outside	Barris argues that “dreams express and work with the logic of gaining a sense of and a relation to ourselves, our lives, or our sense of reality as a whole” (4).	Notice how the citation is outside the last quotation mark and inside the period. This is a common mistake.
Semi-colon	Outside	At the beginning of the study, participants described their dream recall rate as “low to moderate”; at the end, they described it as “moderate to high.”	This make sense if you think about it: the semi-colon is not part of the quotation.
Colon	Outside	Participants stated they were “excited to begin”: We controlled for participants’ expectations in our study.	This make sense if you think about it: the colon is not part of the quotation.
Question mark or exclamation point (part of quoted material)	Inside	The Dream Questionnaire items included “How often do you remember your dreams?” and “What do you most often dream about?” We found intriguing results.	When a quotation ending in a question mark or exclamation point ends a sentence, no extra period is needed.
Question mark or exclamation point (not part of quoted material)	Outside	How will this study impact participants who stated at the outset, “I never remember my dreams”? We hypothesized their dream recall would increase.	One way to explain this: this is your question being posed, not what you’re quoting.
Quotation within a quotation + period or comma	Inside	Some participants were skeptical about the process: “I don’t put any stock in these ‘dream diaries.’”	Ah, the quote-within-a-quote scenario. When multiple quotation marks are used for quotations within quotations, keep the quotation marks together (put periods and commas inside both; put semi-colons, colons, etc., outside both).

If you have other questions or scenarios, please ask, and I will add to this post accordingly.

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