A few days ago, my friend posted this link (http://www.slate.com/id/2293056/) on her FB site. I am a self-proclaimed grammar nut (although perhaps not as avid as some of my colleagues or friends) and thus followed this link to read all about potential changes in punctuation. What do you think about this type of punctuation? I hate (HATE) finding commas and periods outside of their quotation marks, but it seems I might be among the last of those dedicated to keeping this grammatical trend (rule? expectation?) alive. I can understand that we Americans might change our rules to follow British suit. But part of my issue with the argument is the author suggests that "in copy-editor-free zones—the Web and emails, student papers, business memos—with increasing frequency, commas and periods find themselves on the outside of quotation marks, looking in." Why should we kowtow to the layman? Why shouldn't we continue with grammatical rules that have served us for so many decades (centuries)?
So what do you think? Am I being stodgy? Or are we losing (in some small way) this rule just because so many are too lazy to learn proper typing etiquette and grammar?
So what do you think? Am I being stodgy? Or are we losing (in some small way) this rule just because so many are too lazy to learn proper typing etiquette and grammar?