A’Gus

Question

Aspara Gus, logically, why do you think the British place the full stop 'outside' the ending quote marks for specimen sentences, eg The sentence read 'We need to strive for academic excellence'.

But they'll put the full stop inside for a direct quote, eg Mike said, 'The mall will be closing earlier tonight.’ What is the difference here? What's the rationale behind this? I've been trying to figure this out for two years now.

It is hoped that you can illuminate an otherwise dark path here.

Thanks.

RandomGuy · Accepted Answer

victoWhat is the difference here? What's the rationale behind this?

Your guess is as good as mine.

Canadian45 · Answer

Even though you asked Gus these questions, as long as they are in an open forum many people will read them. You can ignore my answers if you wish.

victoAspara Gus, logically, why do you think the British place the full stop 'outside' the ending quote marks for specimen sentences, eg
The sentence read 'We need to strive for academic excellence'. To me, this is clearly wrong! (assuming that the period directly (and correctly) followed "excellence" in the initial sentence. I can't imagine any justification for where the period is now.

victoBut they'll put the full stop inside for a direct quote, eg

Mike said, 'The mall will be closing earlier tonight.’ This is correct, although I see no reason for the comma after "said". What's inside the quotes tells us 'exactly' what Mike said or wrote. So the period is inside the quote. If one is tempted to put another period outside the quote, that would be criticized as being double punctuation. (two periods)
What is the difference here? What's the rationale behind this? I've been trying to figure this out for two years now.

RandomGuy · Answer

canadian45The sentence read 'We need to strive for academic excellence'. To me, this is clearly wrong! (assuming that the period directly (and correctly) followed "excellence" in the initial sentence. I can't imagine any justification for where the period is now.

Personally, I prefer to have the period inside, but I think there is a valid argument for the outside placement, too. To me, the difference between placing the period inside a quoted sentence and placing it outside is that the former assigns the period to the quoted sentence and that the latter assigns the period to the whole sentence. Besides, when a quotation is in the middle of a sentence, we don’t use a period at all, so why must we treat sentence-ending quotes differently?

Inside or outside, I don’t think it matters much either way.

Victo · Answer

Thanks, Aspara Gus and Canadian45.

A’Gus

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