"xxx." or "xxx".

[Nanette Luoma Andrusiak <nluoma -at- AMERITECH -dot- NET>]

Regarding the use of periods and quotation marks.
I was taught that it is grammatically correct to put punctuation inside
quotation marks. However, there are exceptions. I have had clients who
due to the nature of their material wanted the punctuation outside of
the quotation marks. Their justification was that they frequently
enclosed text strings that the reader needed to type on the computer
inside of the quotation marks. Including the punctuation inside the
quotation marks confused the reader. They had tried using a different
font and format for the text strings, also, but found the readers still
couldn't tell whether or not to type the punctuation. Their solution was
to type the punctuation OUTSIDE the quotation marks. As this was their
standard, readers always knew whether or not to type the punctuation. As
for the writers, well, we had a hard time adjusting to the situation.
And when I went back to school for my masters I kept getting papers just
dripping in red ink from improperly place periods.......

Nanette

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