Some excerpts from

The Personal Style Sheet

of

Will de Kypia
____________

I seldom use commas to separate quotations from
the main discourse, i.e., in speech (or dialogue) tags:

They told me "You should use commas in speech tags.".
"I just don't like them, never have, never will.", Will said."
~
I almost always use the serial
(Oxford or St. Irenaeus) comma:

Will's favorite breakfast is coy:
coffee, oatmeal, and yogurt.
~
And I usually put periods and commas outside
quotation marks unless the punctuation
is part of the quote (British style):

The sign said "Keep off the green-coloured grass".
.versus
Then the guy said "Don't ever come back here again."
~
But I favor the American style of using double
quotes for the main quote, single quotes
for the secondary (or nested) quote:

My mother screamed "Not in this house!"
.versus
He said ''Then my mother screamed 'Not in this house!' ''
~
These are my rules and I reserve the right to violate
any of them at any time for any reason or none.
__________________

◀️