To oomis1105: First of all, thank you for agreeing with me.
I must respectfully disagree with you when you go on to write, in part: “why can we not communicate as intelligent-sounding human beings, rather than sounding as though we grew up in a barn?” If someone grew up in a barn, that is no reason to look down on him/her. For one thing, there is plenty to learn in a barn, starting with the an appreciation of the luxury of a heated home and a store-bought mattress, and including where farm animals come from (or, rather, the mechanisms by which Hashem sends them to this world). But the use of standard English as a means of showing off one’s social class, or financial good fortune, or formal education is abhorrent, in my opinion. There is no shame in being born in modest or impoverished circumstances, or in war-ravaged Eastern Europe, or drug-war-ravaged Mexico, nor is there any shame in being unable to obtain a good education. The real shame is having the opportunity to receive a good education but being too lazy or indifferent to do the work needed to get it. The sterling example of that is George W. Bush, BA from Yale, MBA from Harvard, both bought and paid for, but not worked for or earned or obtained.
As for your question about whether a punctuation mark should be inside or outside the quotation marks: it depends. If the punctuation is part of the quoted text, it always belongs inside the quotation marks. If the punctuation mark is not part of the quoted text, there are two different styles: the British style puts the punctuation in its logical place, i.e., outside the quotation marks; the American style is to put the punctuation mark inside the quotation marks, even if the punctuation mark is not part of the quoted text, because it supposedly looks better. Generally, I follow the American rule, but when discussing grammar, usage or syntax, I prefer to follow the British rule, as it is more logical and precise.
And last but not least, chayav inish livisumay: the fourth character of my screen name is the letter “o”, not the numeral “0”. My point is, “That’s not spighetti, it’s linguini.”