Does The Comma Go Before Or After Quotation Marks

Quotation marks are used to begin and end direct quotations. In british usage, they can go either inside or outside. The mla handbook notes, “by convention, commas and periods that directly follow quotations go inside the closing quotation marks” (267).

In uk usage, you can choose. Periods and commas always go inside the quotation marks. The logic of putting a period (or comma) after the quotation marks in the math example, and similarly with poem titles, seems very strong to me.

The mla handbook notes, “by convention, commas and periods that directly follow quotations go inside the closing quotation marks” (267).

A common algebraic variable is 'x'. The most famous line from hamlet, “to be or not to be, that is the question”, epitomises the indecisiveness of the hero. Quotation marks come in pairs, one before and one after the quoted text. I was reminded of this rare example of punctuation prowess recently when i came across a sentence that got it wrong, placing the comma after the single closing quotation mark instead of before it.