I read a short article yesterday morning that I thought was very relevant to this forum. The article stated that many of us, at least in America, were taught in school that the punctuation mark belongs inside of the quotes in a quotation. For example, "This is a quote ending a sentence." The article stated that the rise of the internet has brought about a change in this rule and that it is becoming more common for the punctuation to be outside of the quote at the very end of the sentence. Furthermore, the article claimed that putting the punctuation on the inside of the quote is an American English rule while it is considered proper to put it on the outside in British English.
This lead me to two questions: one, is this American vs. British statement correct? Two, given the evolutionary nature of language, what makes a particular rule correct or incorrect?
This lead me to two questions: one, is this American vs. British statement correct? Two, given the evolutionary nature of language, what makes a particular rule correct or incorrect?