The Period — the Ultimate Insider

Unlike the colon and semicolon, the period always goes inside quotation marks. This is one punctuation rule that has no exceptions in our version of the English language. (Across the pond is a different story.)

He said, “Let’s plan to meet at noon.”

When there is a quote within a quote, the period stays inside both the single and the double quotation marks:

“I was surprised when he said to me, ‘I plan to retire at the end of the year.’”

The period is placed inside quotation marks even when just a single word is placed in quotes:

I didn’t know what he meant when he said the child was “inconsolable.”

A period is preferable if a statement is more a suggestion than a question:

Why don’t you leave the report on my desk before you go home today.

A period also is preferable at the end of an indirect question:

She asked what time the meeting would be held.

Using periods with abbreviations can get a little tricky:

J.K. Rowling and T.S. Elliot,
but JFK and LBJ.

Most two-letter abbreviations have periods — M.S., U.N., U.K. — but most three-letter abbreviations do not: MSW, ABC News, FBI. There can be exceptions in cases where an abbreviation is trademarked. One of those is AP, the Associated Press.

And last but not least, use a single space after a period at the end of a sentence. The seasoned among us learned in high-school typing class to create two spaces at the end of a sentence. That rule does not hold true in today’s world of computers. Your computer automatically creates the right amount of space at the end of a sentence as well as between letters, which is called kerning.

By the way, for an excellent guide to the fine points of how your computer can make you look good in print, see The Mac is Not a Typewriter or The PC is Not a Typewriter by Robin Williams.

Ruthless Editor follows The Associated Press Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law guidelines for word and punctuation usage. Webster's New World College Dictionary serves as a secondary reference.

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