Use of comma/period outside quotation marks

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Vanessa Leong
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Use of comma/period outside quotation marks

Post by Vanessa Leong »

Hi,

Are there are any style guides that allow the use of a comma/period outside quotation marks?

For example:
"I did not know such a thing exists", she said.

Would this be considered an error? I'm currently reviewing a book that seems to have adopted this "style" for all the dialogue in the book, and I wouldn't want to wrongly mark them as errors if the author is indeed following a style that I'm just unaware of.

Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you :)
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Post by maggi3 »

I had this same issue in one of the books I was reviewing, and I was told that’s how quotes are formatted under the British English style, so I shouldn’t count it as an error.
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MsH2k
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Post by MsH2k »

Here is a reference for the British style, which is to place commas and periods outside the quotation mark. https://www.thepunctuationguide.com/bri ... style.html
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Post by MrsCatInTheHat »

It is permissible as British English is accepted by the OBC.
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Vanessa Leong
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Post by Vanessa Leong »

MsH2k wrote: 29 Apr 2021, 11:16 Here is a reference for the British style, which is to place commas and periods outside the quotation mark. https://www.thepunctuationguide.com/bri ... style.html
MrsCatInTheHat wrote: 29 Apr 2021, 16:16 It is permissible as British English is accepted by the OBC.
maggi3 wrote: 29 Apr 2021, 05:48 I had this same issue in one of the books I was reviewing, and I was told that’s how quotes are formatted under the British English style, so I shouldn’t count it as an error.
I see. Thank you all for the help!
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