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I'm writing a document using the Chicago Manual of Style. I don't have access to the full guide, only to what's provided on-line. Now I wondering as to whether, in the main text itself, I should use the punctuation-quote or quote-punctuation sequence. For example:

"Blabla," more blabla.

and

"Babla." More blabla.

or

"Blabla", more blabla.

and

"Blabla". More blabla.

Also, does adding a footnote change anything to the sequence?

"Blabla,"² more blabla.

and

"Blabla",² more blabla.

The Chicago Manual of Style proposes, when citing sources in footnotes with regard to articles or parts of books, to use:

Joshua I. Weinstein, “The Market in Plato’s Republic,” Classical Philology 104 (2009): 440.

As you can see the comma is within the quote. I am ready to accept this for a title, but in a sentence of the main text, it looks odd to me.

What is your opinion in this regard?

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  • This actually belongs on english.se, since it's a mechanical question about punctuation conventions.
    – JSBձոգչ
    Jul 18, 2011 at 15:52
  • @JSBձոգչ: Yes, and it will be marked as "exact duplicate" there.
    – SF.
    Jan 9, 2013 at 11:49
  • @SF. And rightly so. I hope you weren't offering this as a reason to keep the question open.
    – JSBձոգչ
    Jan 9, 2013 at 18:45

1 Answer 1

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CMOS says periods and commas go inside. It doesn't make sense, to me, but that's the rule. Bear in mind that this does not apply to question or exclamation marks, which only go inside the quotation marks if they belong to the words being quoted.

There's a fairly interesting discussion on this, here.

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3
  • yep, everything I wanted to say is in that article. so the answer is, punctuate for your audience. :)
    – Lauren-Clear-Monica-Ipsum
    Jul 17, 2011 at 13:54
  • Nice thanks. The article seems to think the American style is inconsistent. I will the choose for consistency, i.e. European style (besides I used British English), at the risk of being frowned upon.
    – neydroydrec
    Jul 17, 2011 at 13:56
  • I'm an American, but whenever it's up to me, i.e. I don't have an editor imposing a style, I use British style, because I think it just makes more sense and is easier to read. (Let me emphasize that this is not an endorsement of Limey culture in general, just this one particular convention. :-)
    – Jay
    Jun 16, 2015 at 16:25

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