I said, "Put the period inside if you are speaking." Then, before advising him to put the period outside if he was quoting someone else, I paused for a moment, wondering what experiences OP must have had to make reference to "sex with a penguin".

>>24701464
God it looks so fucking ugly. OP must be retarded. A faggot too.

>>24701437
This has seriously always bothered me too, and I also refuse to do it

how do you go from this
>It just looks and feels wrong;
to this
>it feels like having sex with a penguin

>>24701437
The real answer is that you use either convention as you see fit. There's a reason why we're "supposed" to use a comma at the end of a sentence spoken by someone inside a larger sentence. I don't like it either, however as my father always told me, "Don't do things just because people demand you do them, do what you think is right and fuck everyone else." So, just structure your writing to accommodate your preferred style. Can't do that? Then you can't fucking write for shit and you don't deserve this advice.

>>24701511
>"Don't do things just because people demand you do them, do what you think is right and fuck everyone else."
Based

>>24701533
Thanks. I want to be a little more clear about it though. You HAVE to think that it's right. If you make a mistake because you're stupid or lazy or you fucked up, that's not the same thing. Don't fail to own up to your mistakes. If you feel strongly about how you punctuate quotation marks enough for it to matter for your artistic expression, that's exactly what I'm talking about. Piss people off if you must, as long as you think it's right. But you HAVE to think that it's right. This isn't an excuse for incompetence.

>>24701437
This is why British grammar is superior. Americans have to put up with these retarded additions.

.".

formatting rules shall change. (and thats a good thing)

>>24701464
Very good answer! I am an inside period guy and, of course, Gen X. If I ever critique the use of the outside period, I will keep that in mind. Thanks.