Putting a Period to Puzzling Punctuation

 

February 15, 2025

OK, I admit it: I had another name for this post, but then the allure of alliteration got to me. In any case:

 

You know how your teacher always made you put the period inside the quotation marks, even when it didn’t make any sense? The example in the article I read was,

Anna said updating the guide was “a difficult and time-consuming task.”

vs.

Anna said updating the guide was “a difficult and time-consuming task”.

 

The first way is American style. The second is British and is sometimes referred to as “logical punctuation.” (I’m again quoting the article, otherwise I would have put the period outside the quotation marks on this one, too.)

 

Anyway, “logical punctuation” seems to sum up the situation nicely. I myself, when asking questions that involve quotations, have given up and put the question mark outside the quotation marks, because it makes sense that way.

 

(From “What’s the Deal?”, August 23, 2013):

August 23, 2013

With homeowners refusing to let firefighters practice firewise techniques to fight fires burning in their area (because they didn’t want their landscaping messed with), will firefighters ever throw up their hands and say, “OK, we’ll let your house burn.”? Will the forest service ever say, “If you don’t practice the firewise techniques yourselves, we won’t risk our lives by even attempting to keep the fire from your house.”? Will the forest service ever say, “If you build here, you’re on your own?” 

Will I ever be able to figure out the proper punctuation for the previous paragraph? (Note the attempt to have it both ways in the paragraph.)

 

Now, because of the article “Point, Counterpoint” by Ben Yagoda in the Pennsylvania Gazette, I am free to use punctuation logically. In fact, according to the author, more people are using the logical punctuation informally, although editors and teachers still adhere to the American rules.

Luckily, nobody’s grading me on this blog.