Punctuation marks such as periods and commas should be placed outside the set of quotation marks. Question marks and exclamation points should be placed inside if they are part of the quoted material, and outside if they are not.
Punctuation marks should be placed outside the set of quotation marks, unless they are part of the quoted material. For example: "I love pizza," she said.
In dialogue, periods, commas, question marks, and exclamation points go inside quotation marks. (A semicolon goes outside quotation marks but isn't used much in dialogue, so you don't need to worry about it.)
It is not compulsory to use a specific mark, but usually we use a comma.
No, quotation marks are not needed around individual letters when they are used as part of a word or sentence in standard writing. Quotation marks are typically used to indicate a direct quotation or to highlight a specific phrase in writing.
In American English, most punctuation marks are placed inside quotation marks. However, in British English, punctuation marks are placed outside the quotation marks unless they are part of the quoted material.
In American English, dialog tags are typically placed outside the quotation marks. For example: "I love to read," she said. However, in British English, dialog tags are often placed inside the quotation marks. For example: "I love to read", she said. It's important to be consistent with whichever style guide you choose to follow.
a comma
The quotation marks are placed outside of the question mark at the end of a sentence when the quoted text is part of the question. For example: Did she say, "I'll be there"?
In American English, an exclamation point should be placed inside quotation marks, followed by a comma if necessary: He shouted, "Stop!" In British English, the exclamation point would be placed outside of the quotation marks: He shouted, "Stop"!
Information that must be placed inside quotation marks includes direct quotes from a speaker or text, titles of shorter works such as articles or poems, and certain words used as linguistic examples or when discussing the word itself.
The comma is inside the quotation mark if it is part of the quote. For example: John said, "Please pass the butter, and then could you pour me some milk?" Notice that there is also a comma after the word "said" that is not in quotation marks. This is because "said" is not a part of the quote. Be careful of indirect quotes which do not use quotation marks, such as: John said to please pass the butter and then pour him some milk. An easy mistake is to write: John said "to please pass the butter and then pour him some milk" which would be incorrect since that is not what John said.
In American English, periods and commas always go inside quotation marks, regardless of whether they are part of the quoted material. Other punctuation marks (such as semicolons, question marks, and exclamation points) are placed inside the quotation marks if they are part of the quoted text, and outside if they are not.