This is one of those 'this is the way I prefer it' more than an actual grammar question. Probably one of those questions you'd never ask in an English class, just because smiles are generally not used in ordinary writing. When you write in a forum, it could happen, and since we're so much into the using correct punctuation and spelling and grammar here, I figured I'd ask.

I find myself using smilies at the end of sentences more and more often, and I keep struggling with the same question about them.

When you end a sentence, and then add a smiley.. does the period or whatever go after the smile or before?

I've written both ways, and neither way seems to satisfy the inner-grammar-nazi within my brain. So hopefully hearing how others here will help it to calm down while I type.

~Jamie and Arcion

To me it depends on what the meaning of the smiley is attached to. If it goes with the previous sentence, it can go before the period. If it's a stand-alone meaning in itself, after. Of course, most of the time I just don't even use the punctuation when I end a line with a smiley. That's for IMs though, I don't use them so much for forums.

What about in the middle of a quest? Like what we've seen on .hack games and manga, sometimes people end their dialog with a smilie ^^.
Given the scenario, would it be acceptable to do this and not get docted in rewards?

Xan.. you make me want to go out and find a 'zit-faced' smile now. Not that I think I'd ever use it, but just the thought of it makes me laugh now.

I guess I never thought of a smile as punctuation in and of itself, though I guess it is kinda if used at the end of a sentance. Maybe that'll quiet the inner-voice :)

It really depends on where I want it to be. Thinking about it yields me no specific examples, though I do remember having done both.

As for the acne-ridden smiley, just give me a few minutes this afternoon. ;)

O.o I actually did a paper on this for a semiotics class back in college (so, its ancient now). The gist of the paper was that on the internet, acronyms and smilies take the place of inflection and body language. Therefore, a smilie was not considered a part of the sentence, but rather it was meant to be a conveyer of intent applied to the whole sentence. Therefore, it should be after the punctuation.

For a good way to think about it, consider if you put the sentence in quotation makes, indicating speech. Do you intend the speaker to say "wink" or "semi-colon-end-parenthesis" at the end of their statement? Probably not. Therefore, the smilie belongs outside the quotes and, by definition, after the period.

((Incidentally, mt prof wanted to fail me on the paper based on that he didn't understand it. Then the visiting prof took up my case, complimented my work and I ended up with an A-minus.))

</nostalgic rambling>

I agree with what Kae says, a smilie or other symbol of that type should go after the sentence. :D

Even think of it this way, if you were going to stick your tongue out at someone in real life (making a :P face), would you do it while you were talking or after you were talking. Obviously after, cause if you try to do it while you're talking, you'll look like an idiot trying to talk with your tongue out. lol

By the same token though, when you write a 'spoken' sentence, it is proper grammar to put the period inside the quotes, and yet you rarely imagine someone saying 'period' at the end of their sentences. Also, I sometimes find myself smiling wider or otherwise changing expression (even pausing during the sentence to stick out my tounge sometimes) in the middle of a sentence to put empathsis on a certain word or phrasing and then switching back to a regular smile, which would tend to put more empathsis on the 'after the period'. I would tend to put those in the descriptive text after the quote ended, and thus it could be considered it's own sentence.

In choir we were taught to always be smiling, but also to make sure to round out the 'O' sounds. If it's possible to do while singing and producing 'round' vocals, it is possible to 'combine' the spoken word and a smilie, though it may take a bit of training before someone can pull it off correctly.

Most grammar is rather self-explanatory if you think about it, some thing are just harder to grasp than others, which is possibly one of the reasons this forum exists here.

For the :zap: , :blowup: , :offtopic: or :spam: smiles I'd probably give them their own line, as they tend to be sentences of their own, but that's not what this discussion is for anyways. It's for the more 'conversational' smilies

That's not actually a very good example. In that example, you're using the period as a form of punctuation. A smilie is not punctuation, so its inclusion within quotation marks would suggest it is indeed meant to be spoken.

This is not to say you can't do it - but gramatically, they're not a part of the sentence. They're an independent entity giving context to the sentence, much the way a smile while speaking give context to your audible words. When you smile as you talk, or change expressions, those changes are not part of the sentence, just a part of the way you perceive it.

So while I'm not sure smilies are gramatically sound in anu usage, using them after the period at least maintains the integrity of the sentence itself.

This brings along another bit of stuff dealing with smilies...

If the smilie does in fact come after the period... Then what of this construction:

"I really like her, :P" he said. "Really, I do!"

Would you stick the :P after the comma? Is there a general rule of thumb we can use when dealing with different forms of punctuation?
What if a person is giving a list:

"So we need saurkraut, the messy kind :P; bleucheese, eww :(; and we need the stony hands of Ojomajo Doremi <_<."

How would you go about working in the smilies? Would it be a must to start a new set of quotations after each smilie?

EDIT: I KNOW THERE ARE NO STONY HANDS <_<
EDITEDIT: I emboldened my main question, for ease of reading. :)