Controversy post

Today let’s talk about some things that I’ve had arguments about.

First, about quotation marks and punctuation.
In standard American English, the rule is that puncuation marks always go inside of the quotation marks. Always, always.
I went through all of elementary and middle school being told that this is the only way to do things.
Then I learned that in British English, it’s actually okay to put punctuation outside of the quotations in certain situations! But it’s a little more complicated than the aforementioned way.
Here’s the rule: If the punctuation is part of the thing you’re quoting, then put the punctuation inside the quotation marks with the rest of the quote. If there is no punctuation in your quote, then put the punctuation after the closing quote mark.
It requires a little more thinking, but in the end I feel that this is an overall better way to do things. I’ve got no problem with people who prefer the simpler American way of doing this, but I get pretty annoyed when people tell me I’m doing it wrong.
(Incidentally, I had an English teacher tell me that this was too complicated for his class and that I should just do the American way. This, by the way, was a college class. If British children can do it, I think I can handle my punctuation, thank you.)

Second, about lists, commas and the word “and”.
Depending on where you look this up, some sources will tell you that, when listing things, you should put a comma before the “and” on the last list item.
Buuu.
The majority of sources I’ve seen, though, say that you should NOT put a comma before the “and”. So a list should look like “death beams, lightsabers and X-rays”.
After debating this with some people and bringing out some grammar books, I’m pretty certain that the latter is the correct choice, so do it.