Let's say I am asking a question which includes a quote, like this:

Q: "Scientists may use robots to collect data". Which of the words below is closest in meaning to "data"?

Does the full stop go outside the inverted commas, or inside? I know that it's inside for dialogue, obviously, but here my inclination is to put it outside, because the quote itself is a separate thing and the full stop is just showing that the sentence is ended.

here's another e.g (same thing)


Q: Why are the rice fields of the Philippines described as "precious"?

Question mark outside, right? Or wrong?

I think I'd agree with you - outside for both.

Whereas it would be inside if it was like this:

Q: "May scientists may use robots to collect data?" Answer the question with reference to your own experience.

I think I would do it inside for the first one and outside for the second one. In the first one, the full stop relates to the complete sentence that is being quoted within the speech marks as with this,

Q1 "How do I love thee? Let me count the ways." Why do you think Elizabeth Barret Browning chooses to open the poem with a question?

Whereas in the second example, the question mark relates to the surrounding question, not to the word that is being quoted.

So I would say:

Q: "Scientists may use robots to collect data." Which of the words below is closest in meaning to "data"?

Q: Why are the rice fields of the Philippines described as "precious"?

Hmm, yes, that makes sense - as long as the original quote itself ends in a full stop.

Thanks, both