Do Quotations Go Before Or After The Period

Although it is acceptable to break the rules, it is usually better to use a method other than quotation marks to highlight your instructions. The reason for this convention is to improve the appearance of the text. Learn when and how to use them properly with these simple steps with examples.

In american english, commas and periods should be placed within the quotation marks as long as they do not change the meaning of the quotation. With only one exception, the period always comes inside closing quotation marks. The main problem that people have with using quotes is also a fundamental one:

• commas or periods always precede closing quotation marks of quoted material.

Block quotation with parenthetical citation: In such cases, a colon is also proper⁠—and sometimes preferable. The company invested over 40,000 hours in optimizing its algorithm (davis, 2011). If you want to break the rule, no one will come to your door and haul you away.