When a comma or period is needed after a quotation, publishers in the United States typically put the punctuation mark before the closing quotation mark. The reason for this convention is to improve the appearance of the text. The convention goes back at least to the nineteenth century. John Wilson’s A Treatise on English Punctuation (1850) says that it provides for “neatness” (114). A comma or period that follows a closing double quotation mark hangs off by itself and creates a gap in the line of text (since the space over the comma or period combines with the following word space).
British publishers tend to put the comma or period after the quotation mark. But the British usually use the narrower, single quotation mark as the primary quotation mark. There is less of an aesthetic penalty to placing a comma or period after a single quotation mark, since the mark of punctuation isn’t stranded as far from the previous word.
It’s true that the convention followed in the United States treats the comma or period as if it were part of the quoted material. But the practice is “not likely to give a false meaning to the words cited” (Wilson 114). Indeed, this sleight of hand involving punctuation is minor compared with the violence of quotation itself: quoting almost always entails wrenching the original author’s words out of their context, an action that inevitably affects their meaning.
The conventions of scholarly quotation—removing the original context, adapting the extract to fit the new context, and others—are well understood. They don’t unduly compromise the source if they’re followed carefully.
Work Cited
Wilson, John. A Treatise on English Punctuation. 2nd ed., Boston, 1850. HathiTrust Digital Library, 13 May 2012, hdl.handle.net/2027/hvd.hx521x.
17 Comments
Susan L Schoenbeck 21 April 2019 AT 01:04 PM
...food industry in U.S.".
Does the period go after the quotation mark in the above case?
Jennifer A. Rappaport 22 April 2019 AT 06:04 AM
Thanks for your question. The period at the end of the abbreviation serves as the final period:
". . . food industry in the U.S."
No additional period is needed.
T. Xi 08 August 2021 AT 05:08 PM
Technically the periods in U.S. are for its acronym, so yes, you would put the period at the end because the 'period' in U.S. is exclusive to 'U.S.' and can not and should not be used to suddenly be used for the two purposes of initializing and ending the sentence at the same time. That can't be literature or writing in any shape or form otherwise. It makes very little logic and there's no consistency at all.
Demi Wang 24 November 2020 AT 01:11 AM
The expression de facto means “exercising power as if legally constituted”.
Or
The expression de facto means “exercising power as if legally constituted.”
Should period be placed before of after the ending quotation? Please help.
Thanks
Jennifer A. Rappaport 28 November 2020 AT 10:11 AM
Thanks for your question. In MLA style, the period should be placed before the ending quotation mark.
R 12 March 2021 AT 03:03 PM
Should I make a period after the author's name?
Ex. ".....blah blah." (MacLean 189).
or "......blah blah." (MacLean 189)
Angela Gibson 22 March 2021 AT 11:03 AM
An example sentence with in-text citation from the post is instructive:
John Wilson’s A Treatise on English Punctuation (1850) says that it provides for “neatness” (114).
In your examples the correct punctuation would be
x. “…..blah blah” (MacLean 189).
Jeong cp 21 March 2021 AT 11:03 PM
"MLA vs APA 7 Format"
To add on, there are several main differences in "MLA 8 vs APA 7 " format.
The various revisions to both MLA and APA format respectively, have indeed created more confusion for both researchers and seasoned writers from different jurisdictions (common and civil law domains).
Regards,
Jeong CP
T. Xi 08 August 2021 AT 05:08 PM
Sorry but I don't believe in that period placement at all. My way of thinking closely matches mathematics and computation. The period is not part of the quotation, but the sentence itself. It's meant as a placeholder and marks the end of the sentence, not the quote.
Grammatically in my opinion, the period should always be at the end because that's always how a sentence ends. A quote is its own phrase that must be contained within the sentence like a math formula. The period is equivalent to the "=" sign.
The period that is included within the quotation marks ends the quote itsself only, not the sentence.
My client replied "yeah".
vs
My client replied "yeah."
Visually and logically the period looks awkward inside the quotation marks. If a comma is placed inside instead of a period, it suggests there is a continuation of the quote or the sentence hasn't ended. And sometimes people put a comma inside quotation marks even if there's no more quotations being used later in the sentence, which makes even less sense because the comma in the quotation isn't meant to be a comma for the sentence if contained within the quote. If you wanna add a comma, add it like you normally would in a sentence without the quote.
A sentence that ends with a period within a quote, would technically be an unfinished sentence as the period ends the quote, not the sentence. My rule of thumb with periods is they are always last just as that is they are meant for.
For quoting books like above, I would either not put punctuation at all or put a hypen or "-" to show its taken from the middle of a sentence and does not include the last words of the sentence.
Michael S 15 September 2021 AT 11:09 AM
What about where you are putting a word in scare quotes?
For example: We're told to trust the "experts".
Because expert is not a quotation that calls for punctuation, I always feel like the punctuation is better suited outside the quotation.
Laura Kiernan 24 September 2021 AT 03:09 PM
For information about scare quotes, see section 2.56 of the ninth edition of the MLA Handbook.
Chris 16 September 2021 AT 12:09 PM
Question mark after quotations?
Yes or no.
Thank you!
Laura Kiernan 24 September 2021 AT 01:09 PM
For information about including a question mark after a quotation, see section 6.53 of the ninth edition of the MLA Handbook.
Mary Leonard 21 September 2021 AT 02:09 PM
In the following example where would the period be placed? Before or after the quotation marks? We use a software solution called "DocResponse"
Laura Kiernan 24 September 2021 AT 01:09 PM
In MLA style, titles of software programs are italicized, so DocResponse should be italicized and the quotation marks should be removed.
Patrick 21 September 2021 AT 08:09 PM
Hi,
Would the comma be inside the quotation mark or outside in this case?
Based on the title, “The Road Not Taken”, what do you think the poem will be about?
Thank you,
Laura Kiernan 24 September 2021 AT 01:09 PM
In your example, the comma should be placed before the ending quotation mark.
Join the Conversation
We invite you to comment on this post and exchange ideas with other site visitors. Comments are moderated and subject to terms of service.
If you have a question for the MLA's editors, submit it to Ask the MLA!