Periods, commas, and quotation marks.

Do periods and commas go inside or outside quotation marks? The answer depends on where your audience lives because in America we always, repeat, always put periods and commas inside quotation marks, but the British put periods and commas indiscriminately inside or outside.

Don’t get confused when you see the period outside the quotation marks on the BBC website; just remember that it’s different across the pond.

Just because they do it one way, doesn't mean it's alright to do the same way in America. We are two peoples separated by a conman language after all.

The American usage reportedly began with typesetters, the people who layout printed material with type.The  rule that places periods and commas inside quotation marks originated to protect the small metal pieces of type from breaking off the end of the sentence. The quotation marks are on a larger piece of type and they safely fenced in the commas and periods. 

There is a school of thought that claims an exception to this "always in America" rule for technical writing. Don't worry about it. The exception claims that sometimes, like when quoting a web address or password, it's acceptable to place the period or comma outside the quotation marks. Maybe, maybe not. Lots of disagreement. Some grammar gurus claim that the technical writers only want the exception because they're too lazy to remember the right way. I don't take a side on this.

It's not that hard in America: Put the period or comma inside the quotation marks where the little dot or arc is protected by the big bad double slash. That way it won't get eaten by the big bad capital letter lurking at the start of  the next sentence.