Hi, this question is for kriswrite only.

Why do British and Americans have different rules for the position of
punctuation in regards to quotation marks?

Thanks.

Hi iriver~

Actually, Americans don't have any one rule about punctuation marks
inside or outside quotation marks, either. Occasionally, you'll find
manuscripts with punctuation *outside* the quotation marks--although
punctuation *inside* quotation marks is considered more proper.

In printing (books, magazines, newspapers, etc.), it has almost always
been correct to have punctuation inside the quotation marks.
Punctuation outside the quotation marks comes from the lo' typewriter
days. Like double spacing between sentences, those ol-typewriter-rules
are mostly a thing of the past. Why? Because editors desire
near-typeset-ready manuscripts, and teachers, etc. follow their lead.
In fact, punctuation inside the quotation marks has become something
of a mania; to those in the publishing industry, anything else
received the dreaded red marks!

The British probably stick to the ol-typewriter-rules (after all,
you're still typing), while we "modernistic" Americans prefer the new
computer style rules :)

Regards,
Kriswrite

Great answer as usual! Thanks a lot!

Thank You :)

Kristina

Kristina ...

What on earth were you thinking about when you said that us Brits were
'still typing'?

Most of us can't afford a typewriter and we use chalk and slate.

True. The advantage is that we are not endlessly pressured to get the
latest update for the chalk, or a bug patch for the slate.

It does make it slightly harder to use the internet, though. Google's
"chalk and slate" interface is still going through beta testing.