When do Commas or Periods Go Inside Quotation Marks and When do They Go Outside?

I'm curious why your example:

The poet refers to the graveyard as “dismal,” “heartbreaking,” “sleeping,” and “fat.” wouldn't be simplified:

The poet refers to the graveyard as “dismal, heartbreaking, sleeping and fat.”

I have this following sentence that I struggle with a lot:

So, if I said, "how do you like cyber-stalking me", would you giggle like a school girl?

I am not sure if the comma should go inside or outside the quotation mark. In fact, I am not even sure if it should be a comma or a question mark. The stuff inside the quotation marks is a question, so that's why I kind of think I need a question mark. However, I kind of think a comma would work too, due to the nature of the sentence.

Can someone tell me whether I should have used a question mark or comma after the word "me"?

I'm not sure what you used for a source for this posting. The Merriam Webster Concise Guide Handbook for Writers says that periods and commas, even when used with single letters, go inside quotes. Here is an example from page 45:

The letter "m" is wider than the letter "i."

The semantics for American placement of punctuation is so incredibly irritating. I'm an American, but I'm also a theoretical computer scientist, so I am keenly in tune with grammatical structure of languages.

While I understand that natural languages have many flexibilities that abstract languages do not, I still find some elements frustrating. When the punctuation is not semantically associated with the quoted text, there is no good reason for it to be placed inside.

The usage is completely "screwed." <- Not semantically included.

He said, "The usage is completely strange." <- Semantically included.

@anon133169: How about an answer from a native Southerner who is also an English major and a grammar nut?

You would treat the apostrophe for these words as you would the apostrophe that makes a contraction, or a possessive plural. In essence, it becomes *part* of the word.

So, for instance, if the sentence read, "It's not his help I'm needin'," as you can see, the comma goes after the apostrophe, but inside the quotes. It looks odd, I'll grant you, but that's how it should be treated. Same premise as "That happened at the Rogers'."

Hope this helps clear up the issue! Good luck with the editing. I've done it, believe me.

Due respect to win199, so far I've failed to locate an online source that speaks to my problem. I've been asked to edit a manuscript for a novel that contains a great deal of Southern slang, with dozens (it feels like thousands) of character dialog sentences ending in words such as "needin'" (short for "needing"), "helpin'" ("helping"), and so forth.

Here's my question: Do periods and commas go before or after the apostrophe, as in "needin'," or "needin.'"? Thanks in advance for any "helpin'" you can provide.

I don't like to just contradict what people say, but in the U.S., it's a grammar rule that periods and commas always go inside, regardless of whether it's one letter or not.

Regarding anon's post: Unfortunately, the issue of "to split or to not split" infinitives is something that has become quite skewed in the English language. This is technically a Latin rule, which we try to borrow, but its meaning is much clearer in the Latin (and consequently in all Romantic languages) -- especially considering English is a Germanic language. So I wouldn't worry too much about it.

All those rules! No wonder even a previous poster, who ironically cautioned against semi-colon overuse, split not one but two infinitives: "to not over use" and "to also utilize."

@win199 - The use of quotation marks is generally limited to dialogue or speech, but many people tend to use them a lot more than they should. It's important to remember that even though you are using quotes to not over use them and to also utilize them in the proper aspect. So in this case, general resources can be very helpful - until you run into two sites that disagree on the outcome.

Oh, the English language - how I hate you. Using a period inside or outside quotation marks trips people up to the point of failure sometimes. The reality, however, is that most people can easily look up the answer to their questions about grammar online.