: Period outside quotation marks ...? I am quoting a phrase (not dialog) that happens to come at the end of a sentence. Formal writing protocol - I think - tells us that punctuation goes inside

American and British English differ here.

In American English, the convention is to put the punctuation inside the quotes.

He proclaimed that "he sleeps with the fishes."

In British English, the convention is to put the punctuation outside the quotes unless it is part of the quote.

He proclaimed that "he sleeps with the fishes".

Though note that in either style, question marks are included in the quotes only if they are part of the quote.

He asked, "Do you sleep with the fishes?"

Versus

Did the character in the movie really say, "he sleeps with the fishes"?

Personally, even though I am an American, I think the British style makes more sense because it can avoid ambiguity.

To take a perhaps extreme example, I had a case where I was writing a technical manual once where I was trying to explain that the user should not include decimal points when typing numbers into the computer. And so I wrote something like (not the exact quote, I haven't bothered to look it up, just giving the idea):

Do not enter decimal points as part of a number. For example, don't type "14." -- type "14".

The company's editor changed this to

Do not enter decimal points as part of a number. For example, don't type "14." -- type "14."

Well, umm, that didn't make things very clear.

If you're writing as to conform to some style guide, then follow the style guide. If it's up to you, pick which style you like best and use it consistently.

---

(0)

All your examples are good, except #3 .

A gangster might channel The Godfather movies by proclaiming "he sleeps with the fishes." Of course we all know what this means.

Periods and commas go inside the quotation mark, whether the punctuation is part of the quoted text or not. (In American English.)

---

(0)