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Periods and commas with quotation marks

Place periods and commas inside quotation marks.

Example sentence: “I'm here as part of my service-learning project,” I told the classroom teacher. “I'm hoping to become a reading specialist.”

This rule applies to single quotation marks as well as double quotation marks. It also applies to all uses of quotation marks: for quoted material, for titles of works, and for words used as words.

Example sentence: According to critic David Morrill, “There are elements of vampirism in the Christina Rossetti poem 'Goblin Market.'”

This rules applies even to words and phrases.

Example sentence: Her e-mail message was set to “confirm receipt,” but the recipient's mail was set to “no confirmation on receipt.”

Example sentence: The term used to indicate streamside areas is “riparian.”

EXCEPTION:In MLA and APA documentation styles, the period follows the page number in parentheses.

Example sentence: James M. McPherson comments, approvingly, that the Whigs “were not adverse to extending the blessings of American liberty, even to Mexicans and Indians” (48).

Exercise: Quotation marks 1

Exercise: Quotation marks 2