MSWord punctuation setting

Is that the entire paragraph? Period goes inside the quotes if that is the case.

Anonymous Traveler said:

"Should the setting be so that the sentence ends."

or

"Should the setting be so that the sentence ends".

I think the first is correct but I don't want get pulled off my editor's Christmas list.

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In the US, quotation marks go outside of punctuation. In the UK, Quotation marks usually go inside the punctuation.

I thought if the whole sentence was a quote that it was punctuated within the quotes, but if it was a sentence that contained a quote then the punctuation went out side of the quote.

"I am not a crook."

Nixon attempted to defend himself with comments like "I am not a crook".

Is there any merit in this?

It seems if the UK does it one way and the US does it another then both are correct (or neither ) and simply being consistent should legitimate the method.

Communication would be a lot easier if we were all telepathic.

Delarege said:

I thought if the whole sentence was a quote that it was punctuated within the quotes, but if it was a sentence that contained a quote then the punctuation went out side of the quote.

"I am not a crook."

Nixon attempted to defend himself with comments like "I am not a crook".

Is there any merit in this?

It seems if the UK does it one way and the US does it another then both are correct (or neither ) and simply being consistent should legitimate the method.

Communication would be a lot easier if we were all telepathic.

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In the US, it would be: Nixon attempted to defend himself with comments like "I am not a crook."

It's even, "What do you mean, 'What do I mean?'"

But to steal a quote from a grammar website, it would , even in the US, be: What do you think of Robert Frost's "Design"?

The inside quotation marks rule is for periods, commas, and direct quotes.

You would write:
What do you think of Robert Frost's "Design"?

I love "Design."

I love "Design"; my favorite poem, however, was written by Emily Dickinson.

I love "Design," and I wish he had written more like it.

Confused yet?

The UK method probably makes more sense, but there is a right and a wrong. Right is to do it the way the country you're writing for does it. Doing so saves the editor a lot of work, and this is important.

Jamesaritchie said:

In the US, quotation marks go outside of punctuation. In the UK, Quotation marks usually go inside the punctuation.

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Not quite. It has to do with whether the quotation marks are used in dialog, or in word emphasis. For dialog (dialogue) the U.S. and U.K. practices are the same; the punctuation mark, period, comma, question or exclamation marks, go inside the quotation. If a word is being emphasized (emphasised) at a point which needs a following punctuation, U.S. practice is to put the punctuation inside the quotations, U.K. practice is to put it outside:

My car got totaled in an "accident." -- U.S.

My car got totaled in an "accident". -- U.K.

Having lived in both places, I got this drilled into me pretty good.

caw

blacbird said:

Not quite. It has to do with whether the quotation marks are used in dialog, or in word emphasis. For dialog (dialogue) the U.S. and U.K. practices are the same; the punctuation mark, period, comma, question or exclamation marks, go inside the quotation. If a word is being emphasized (emphasised) at a point which needs a following punctuation, U.S. practice is to put the punctuation inside the quotations, U.K. practice is to put it outside:

My car got totaled in an "accident." -- U.S.

My car got totaled in an "accident". -- U.K.

Having lived in both places, I got this drilled into me pretty good.

caw

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Did I use a dialogue example? The Nixon line wasn't direct dialogue, and that example comes directly from an editor in the UK.

I was responding to your first post, not your second (the Nixon thing), which I didn't catch until later. We're in agreement, and I guess there's no harm in reiteration.

caw