When Do Periods Go Outside Quotation Marks

Question marks and exclamation points should appear within the quotation marks if they are a part of the quoted passage, but after the parenthetical citation if they are a part of your text. If a sentence ends with multiple quotes (a quote within a quote), the period is placed within all of the final quotation marks. “you’ve got to be carefully taught,” wrote oscar hammerstein ii.

Many articles state there is an exception. In instances where punctuation would change the meaning of the quotation—that is, when the punctuation, such as a question mark or exclamation point, does not belong to the quotation—it should be placed. All punctuation goes inside the closing quotation marks.

If the question is part of the quote, the punctuation mark goes inside the quotation marks;

All punctuation goes inside the closing quotation marks. That’s always true—whether the quotation appears at the beginning of the sentence, in the middle of the sentence, or at the very end. American english is known for its exceptions to rules, and there is one type of incidence where it would not be the case that periods go inside quotation marks. “there was a storm last night,” paul said.