Folk in Europe and America: punctuation in quotations?

[justcarol67]

Carol earlier:
> As far as I'm concerned, the sentence you quoted contains a triple
punctuation error (not to mention that "you are" rather than "you're"
is too pompous for dialogue and should be changed. Of course, I don't
deal in fanfic!

Lee replied:
> Ah, but the "you are" might be character style, too.  For example,
if someone was writing a fanfic about the character of Data in Star
Trek Next Gen, the character doesn't use contractions, so "you're"
would be out of character.  It's important, IMHO, to know the context
and style.

Carol again:
"Well, sure. That's a given in my line of work (copyediting). If a
character has a reason for speaking formally (English isn't his native
language or he's from another century, for example), I'd let the "you
are" stand. But for the purposes of most fanfic and for most dialogue
used by American or British characters from the twentieth or
twenty-first centuries, I would go with the contraction. Contractions
make dialogue more natural and more pleasurable to read.

Carol, who has to choose whether to retain or alter contractions or
uncontracted forms all the time and usually goes with the contractions
in dialogue