Editing Quotation marks in English (section)

=== British style<span class="anchor" id="British practice"></span>===
The prevailing style in the United Kingdom{{spaced ndash}} called ''British style'',<ref name=SSF>{{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=PoFJ-OhE63UC&pg=PA180 |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=Scientific Style and Format: The CBE Manual for Authors, Editors and Publishers |publisher=[[Council of Biology Editors]] / Cambridge University Press |date=2002 |quote=In the British style (OUP 1983), all signs of punctuation used with words and quotation marks must be placed {{em|according to the sense}}. |access-date=21 December 2018 |isbn=9780521471541}}</ref><ref name="APA">{{cite web |url=https://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/2011/08/punctuating-around-quotation-marks.html |last=Lee |first=Chelsea |title=Punctuating Around Quotation Marks |work=APA Style Blog |publisher=[[American Psychological Association]] |date=11 August 2011 |access-date=21 December 2018}}</ref> ''logical quotation'',<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.abdn.ac.uk/riiss/content-images/JISS_Style_Guide_revised_FV.pdf |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=Journal of Irish and Scottish Studies  |publisher=Research Institute of Irish and Scottish Studies, [[University of Aberdeen]] |date=2008 |quote=Punctuation marks are placed inside the quotation marks only if the sense of the punctuation is part of the quotation; this system is referred to as logical quotation. |access-date=21 December 2018}}</ref> and ''logical punctuation''<ref name="Yagoda"/>{{spaced ndash}} is to include within quotation marks only those punctuation marks that appeared in the ''original'' quoted material and in which the punctuation mark fits with the sense of the quotation, but otherwise to place punctuation outside the closing quotation marks.<ref name="Yagoda">{{cite web |url=https://slate.com/human-interest/2011/05/logical-punctuation-should-we-start-placing-commas-outside-quotation-marks.html |title=The Rise of "Logical Punctuation" |first=Ben |last=Yagoda |author-link=Ben Yagoda |date=12 May 2011 |work=[[Slate (magazine)|Slate]] |access-date=21 December 2018}}</ref> Fowler's ''[[A Dictionary of Modern English Usage]]'' provides an early example of the rule: "All signs of punctuation used with words in quotation marks must be placed ''according to the sense''."<ref>{{cite book |title=The New Fowler's Modern English Usage |url=https://archive.org/details/newfowlersmodern00fowl |url-access=registration |edition=3rd |date=1996 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |editor-last=Burchfield |editor-first=R. W. |page=[https://archive.org/details/newfowlersmodern00fowl/page/646 646]|isbn=978-0-19-869126-6 }} Emphasis in original.</ref>

When dealing with words-as-words, short-form works and sentence fragments, this style places periods and commas outside the quotation marks:
{{block indent|1=<poem>
"Carefree", in general, means "free from care or anxiety".
The title of the song was "Gloria", which many already knew.
She said she felt "free from care and anxiety".
</poem>}}

When dealing with direct speech, according to the British style guide ''Butcher's Copy-editing'', if a quotation is broken by words of the main sentence, and then resumed, the punctuation before the break should follow the closing quote unless it forms part of the quotation. An exception may be made when writing fiction, where the first comma may be placed before the first closing quote.<ref name="Butcher">{{cite book |last1=Butcher |first1=Judith |last2=Drake |first2=Caroline |last3=Leach |first3=Maureen |date=2006 |title=Butcher's Copy-editing: The Cambridge Handbook for Editors, Copy-editors and Proofreaders |edition=4th |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=978-0-521-84713-1 |page=273}}</ref> In non-fiction, some British publishers may permit placing punctuation that is not part of the person's speech inside the quotation marks but prefer that it be placed outside.<ref name="Butcher" /> Periods and commas that {{em|are}} part of the person's speech are permitted inside the quotation marks regardless of whether the material is fiction.<ref name="Butcher" />
{{block indent|1=<poem>"Today," said Cinderella, "I feel free from care and anxiety." (fiction)
"Today", said the Prime Minister, "I feel free from care and anxiety." (preferred in non-fiction)
"Today I feel happy," said the woman, "carefree, and well." (regardless)
</poem>}}

''[[Hart's Rules]]'' and the ''[[Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors]]'' call the British style "new" quoting. It is also similar to the use of quotation marks in many other languages (including Portuguese, Spanish, French, Italian, Catalan, Dutch and German). A few US professional societies whose professions frequently employ various non-word characters, such as chemistry and computer programming, use the British form in their style guides (see ''ACS Style Guide'').

According to the ''[[Jargon File]]'' from 1983, American [[Hacker (programmer subculture)|hacker]]s (members of a subculture of enthusiastic programmers) switched to what they later discovered to be the British quotation system because placing a period inside a quotation mark can change the meaning of data strings that are meant to be typed character-for-character.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/writing-style.html |title=The Jargon File, Chapter 5. Hacker Writing Style |work=CATB.org |access-date=7 November 2010}}</ref>

Some American style guides specific to certain specialties also prefer the British style.<ref name="CMoS_6.9" /> For example, the journal ''[[Language (journal)|Language]]'' of the [[Linguistic Society of America]] requires that the closing quotation mark precede the period or comma unless that period or comma is "a necessary part of the quoted matter".<ref name="LSA-LSS" /> The websites [[Wikipedia]] and [[Pitchfork (website)|Pitchfork]] use logical punctuation.<ref name="Yagoda"/>