Some of you may have noticed that when a word or phrase is in "quotes" AND at the end of the sentence, I do not put the [ . ] within the quotes where it belongs. This is not because I don't know better. It's because to me, it looks "wrong".
When you are writing out dialog or quoting full sentences, yes, the [ . ] does belong within the quotes, and I put it there.
Example: "No," I said, "Please don't go there." (Perfectly normal).
But for some reason, when the quotes are used to highlight a specific "word" or to convey an "idea" – and are at the end of a sentence – the period just does not belong within the quotes. The [ . ] just really has nothing to do with the emphasis of how you are using the quotes on the word. Plus, aesthetically it just doesn't look "right".
just doesn't look "right."
See what I mean? That period is way out of place tucked in there, tagging along with "right". (Much better).
If you're a real stickler for punctuation, you probably don't agree. But I tend to lean toward what "looks right", rather than what "is right", sorry.
Same goes with a comma too, I guess, as illustrated above.
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