I'm an instructor in the U.S. and have noticed that, over the past year or so, more and more of my students are placing their quotation marks prior to commas and periods, following the British English rules of grammar. E.g., Painted on the sign were the words "Beware of Dog". This is different from the American English rules of grammar, which require quotation marks to follow commas and periods. E.g., Painted on the sign were the words "Beware of Dog."
Then I noticed that most Wikipedia articles (i.e., those written in English) follow the British English rules of grammar; and I've since come to suspect that that's the reason behind my students' grammatical habits -- assuming, of course, that many students use Wikipedia as a research source.
So, all of this leads to my main question: Does Wikipedia require contributors to adhere to the British English rules of grammar? I ask, in part, because even many quintessentially American articles (e.g., articles about American states, traditions, etc.) are typewritten using the British English method.
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