Besides wrongly using a full stop for a question or exclamatory statement, the most common mistakes with full stops occur when other punctuation marks are involved. In the following section, we’ll cover the most common mistakes in these cases.

Periods and Quotation Marks

If we are using quotation marks in a piece, people can mistakenly place the period in the wrong position. In the following examples, we’ll show you some common mistakes and then show you the correct way to write it:

• Incorrect: “I’m so tired.” She said.
• Correct: “I’m so tired,” she said.

Even though the statement is complete within the quotation marks, we only use a period at the end of the complete sentence. Try reading the first option above, placing an emphasized pause on the period in the quotation marks. Notice how awkward it is to read? That is why when a quotation comes before the rest of the sentence, we use a comma and then a period at the end of the complete sentence. But what if the quotation mark comes last?

• Incorrect: She said, “I’m tired“.
• Correct: She said, “I’m tired.“

In this case, the period should always come inside the quotation marks when the quote is ending the sentence.

Periods and Parentheses

Similarly, people make mistakes with parentheses and periods too. We’ll show you the common mistakes and the correct way to write them below:

• Incorrect: Joe was excited to cook dinner (although he was scared about the fish.)
• Correct: Joe was excited to cook dinner (although he was scared about the fish).

When the parentheses do not encompass the entire sentence, we should place the period outside the parentheses. But what about when the entire sentence is within the parentheses?

• Incorrect: Joe was excited to cook dinner. (Although he was scared about the fish).
• Correct: Joe was excited to cook dinner. (Although he was scared about the fish.)

When the parentheses do encompass the entire sentence, we should place the period within the parentheses.