Quotation Mark, correct usage?

Les Coover wrote on 22 Dec 2004:
[nq:1]Quotation marks, correct usage. I understand that the quotation mark goes outside the period as in the following example: I thought, "This must me a good idea." But how about the following? She thought I was a "basket case".[/nq]
This is probably how it would be in British English and in my own international logical style.
[nq:1]She thought I was

[nq:1]Quotation marks, correct usage. I understand that the quotation mark goes outside the period as in the following example: I ... about the following? She thought I was a "basket case". She thought I was a "basket case." Which is correct?[/nq]
I would write I thought, "This must be a good idea." because the quotation is a complete sentence, is part of a dialog, and object of the verb "thou

$F25.14962@okepread07:
[nq:1]She thought I was a "basket case". She thought I was a "basket case." Which is correct?[/nq]
This is a matter of typographic convention, not English usage.

Mike Nitabach

According to the Gregg Reference Manual (Ninth Edition) by William Sabin:
The American style is that periods and commas go inside the closing quotation mark.
Some writers in the United States follow the British style: Place the period outside when it punctuates the whole sentence, inside when it punctutates on the quoted material. Place the comma outside since it always punctuates the sent

[nq:1]She thought I was a "basket case". She thought I was a "basket case."[/nq]
The BrEnglish rules, generally speaking, work by logic; the AmEnglish ones, again generally speaking, work by appearance.

A few decades ago virtually every Briton would write it the first way and virtually every American would write it the second way.(*) As the cultures have interpenetrated, the distincti

[nq:1]For my part, (born and raised in the US hinterlands many years ago. . .possibly before the influence of the ... ) I do recall being taught some kind of system that appears to resemble the one used in UK.[/nq]
Another data point: schooled in Maryland in the 1950s and 1960s, I was taught that comma and period always go inside the preceding quote.

Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Tomp

[nq:1]I personally think the American rule is inconsistent and arbitrary and always apply the British rule.[/nq]
I think computer manuals have influenced this, and are one reason many Americans now use what we were taught to call the "British" style.
Example:
To tell the computer to print your results, type "print."

Of course many folks reading that would type p-r-i-n-t-period

[nq:1]Another data point: schooled in Maryland in the 1950s and 1960s, I was taught that comma and period always go inside the preceding quote.[/nq]
As noted by others uptopic, you were misinformed. Comma and period go inside the preceeding quote in two instances:
(1) They are part of the quoted material.
(2) The quotation is done in America.

Steve
(( Solum potestis prohib

[nq:1]I think computer manuals have influenced this, and are one reason many Americans now use what we were taught to ... Of course many folks reading that would type p-r-i-n-t-period; to prevent this instructional materials tend to use the other convention.[/nq]
This is as good a reason to drop the "American" rule and switch to the logical rule.

Steve
(( Ita erat quando hic adven

[nq:1]The BrEnglish rules, generally speaking, work by logic[/nq]
Oy!

Steny '08!