Last week I talked about a common problem with quotation marks – the bad habit of using them to apologize for a word choice.

Today I have another lesson about quotation marks. I’m going to give you a simple rule about using quotation marks correctly.

Here it is: In the US, periods and commas always go inside. (Did you notice the word always?)

Here are a few examples:

When Janie came through the door, we all started singing “Happy Birthday.”  CORRECT

Although Mark liked the movie, he said he would have “drastically cut it.”  CORRECT

“The time has come,” the Walrus said, “to talk of many things.”  CORRECT

During my long teaching career, I discovered that many people routinely ignore the word always. After I explained that commas and periods always go inside quotation marks in the US, I would ask my class for the exceptions.

Hands would immediately go up, and I’d get answers like “Put the period outside if it’s an incomplete sentence.” “Periods go inside, and commas go outside.”

And I would say, “Does anyone know what always means?” The hands would go down, and there would be some sheepish looks.

Other countries have different rules. In 2015 I published an article about Shaw in a book published in England. I followed British rules for quotation marks and put some of the punctuation outside. But in the US, there are NO exceptions.

Yesterday I did some griping about the apostrophes in The Washington Post. Today – in fairness – I’m going to compliment the newspaper for its careful handling of quotation marks.

Let’s look at a sentence from a recent article about Bryce Harper, a right fielder for the Washington Nationals who’s a force to be reckoned with in baseball.

Here’s the sentence that impressed me:

“There were certain times when I hit a ball to the track last year, and I think back and I’m like, ‘That should have been like three rows deep,’ ” Harper said.

Wow.

Did you notice that there’s a quotation inside Harper’s quotation? (Think of those Russian nesting dolls – it will help.) Harper quoted himself saying, “That should have been like three rows deep.” So we have a quotation nested inside another quotation.

When you’re quoting someone’s exact words, you use double quotation marks, “like this.” If there’s another quotation inside – what Harper did – you use single quotation marks, ‘like this.’ (The British call them “inverted commas.”)

Here’s Harper’s statement again. Take a look at the quotation marks to see how they’re done. (Did you notice that the comma is placed inside the quotation marks? Thank you, Washington Post!)

“There were certain times when I hit a ball to the track last year, and I think back and I’m like, ‘That should have been like three rows deep,’ ” Harper said.

You can learn more about quotation marks here. (It’s easy! Please, please – if you’re an American writing for other Americans, the commas and periods always go inside the quotation marks. No exceptions. None.)

                  Bryce Harper