Commas, Periods, and Quotation Marks

I've noticed lately that electing to follow the "American" rules for commas, periods, and quotation marks often places me in the minority. Frequently, when I punctuate my writing utilizing American rather than British rules, people who wish to use the work will correct what is perceived by them as an error. It's true that the British rules are more intuitive and logical, but then so are the British, right? (Well...more logical, anyway.) Be that as it may, the American standard is strictly followed by editors of all literary work in the US, though not always followed in technological work. For what it's worth, here is the American rule of thumb (per wiseGEEK.com, Sue's favorite online repository of facts––endorsed by Encyclopedia Britannica, Yahoo, and moi. heehee):

"When using quotation marks, people are faced with several choices as to how to place punctuation like commas and periods. If you’re writing with British standards, commas, periods, question marks and others fall naturally. Some are included within the quotation marks, if it makes sense, and others are outside of it. The standard rule in American punctuation is that periods go inside quotation marks, as do most commas, even if the punctuation is not part of the quote.

"American English is known for its exceptions to rules, and there is one type of incidence where it would not be the case that periods go inside quotation marks. If you place quotation marks around a letter or number, usually the period or comma falls outside the quotes. Consider the following example:

I got three “Bs” and an “A”.

"This is the only incidence that ignores the fact that most periods go inside quotation marks. The letter in quotes stands alone.

"In most other incidences, though, you’ll find periods go inside quotation marks, and so do commas. Even if you’re quoting a couple of words from a text, commas (without being part of the text) are included in the quotes:

The poet refers to the graveyard as “dismal,” “heartbreaking,” “sleeping,” and “fat.”

"Note the commas, though they probably are not part of the original quote. In British English, these would fall outside the quotes.

"While you can stand by the rule that most periods go inside quotation marks, and most commas will also do so if you're writing in American English, there are different rules for other types of punctuation." (Question marks and semi-colons, for example, go outside the quotes unless they are part of the quoted material itself.)

CLEAR AS MUD, EH? But who ever said proper punctuation was easy? (Yeah, that's what I thought!)

Anyway, for reasons I can't even begin to explain or justify, I just wanted to put this out there. Admit it, you're fascinated. heehee