Dear People of the World, please keep your ding dang punctuation inside of quotation marks.

Example: Bob said, “Poor punctuation usage is not right”. “In fact”, he continued, “is there anything more annoying that punctuation marks outside of quotation marks”?

No, there’s not. Periods, commas, exclamations points: all of them should stay inside quotation marks. Be aware that there are a few exceptions to that rule. At the same time, the only one the average duck needs to know about usually involves a question mark, such as, Is that any song more patriotic than “The Star-Spangled Banner”?

Do you see the difference? In that case, to put the question mark inside the quotation marks would infer that the title of the song is “The Star-Spangled Banner?” which, of course, it is not, unless you’re Christina Aguilera and make up the lyrics as you go. But again, those situations are rare.

Long story short: When it doubt, save me the blood pressure, and just leave your punctuation inside the quotation marks, mmkay?