> Well now, I just walked over to the proofreaders and borrowed the Chicago Manual of Style (that should have been underlined). "The British style of positioning periods and commas in relation to the closing quotation mark is based on the same logic that in the American system governs the placement of question marks and exclamation points: if they belong to the quoted material, they are placed within the closing quotation mark; if they belong to the including sentence as a whole, they are placed after the quotation mark. The British style is strongly advocated by some American language experts."

The British style follows the same way as the American, yet only "some" American language experts advocate it?

Personally, I *wish* this were the norm, but unfortunately the only rules I've ever seen from authoritative sources say it goes inside no matter what. This actually doesn't bother me with periods -- in fact it looks better inside than out for me -- but it really bothers me with question marks and, on fewer occasions, exclamation points. Such as:

Did you hear that song "American Pie?"

...just looks stupid. Lately I've been wavering between writing it this way and rebelling by putting it on the outside, but to be honest, I don't like the look of it that way either.