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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/38358
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

I am a bit crazy about punctuation and I have a question that I'm struggling to find a consensus on.

For dialogue (especially in fiction), I always use the standard format:

> "I told you I wanted chocolate, not banana." He sighed.  
> John looked up and frowned. "Well, they didn't have any."

However, I'm currently writing a travel journal (first person, naturally) and whilst the above format does occasionally work for longer exchanges of dialogue, it is often more appropriate to use inline quotations instead, e.g.

> We entered a small town and stopped to see if there was a shop. John shouted "Hey look, an elephant!" and I turned around to see.

This is especially annoying at the end of sentences, as I'm never sure whether to place the period inside the quotation marks (as normal) or outside, e.g.

> We entered a small town and stopped to see if there was a shop. John grabbed my arm and said "Hey look, an elephant".
> 
> We entered a small town and stopped to see if there was a shop. John grabbed my arm and said "Hey look, an elephant."

I'm sure many will have a personal preference on this but I wondered if there was an agreed standard? I'm leaning towards the latter, but this seems odd as the sentence is not entirely made up by one person's dialogue.

Original score: 3