American Quotes

The single most annoying part for me of the American version of English is the stupid convention of placing punctuation inside quote marks…ALWAYS (except for the exceptions). This has driven me mad since elementary school. It makes no freakin’ sense. It’s supposed to be “easier”, but it’s really not. The Brits may be all screwed up with that “-our” thing (instead of “-or”), but they’ve got it all over us Yanks when it comes to quotes.

I say all American writers should band together and forge a new de facto standard for the U.S. that makes sense–punctuation inside quote marks only when they are PART OF THE ACTUAL QUOTE.

Join with me! United we stand, untied we fall! We have nothing to lose but our displaced punctuation!