Because I am tired of having to edit the same shit all the time, here are some general guidelines (which by the way also apply to the forum), which I am going to be updating as they occur to me.
1. No punctuation marks at the start or end of quoted passages, with the exception of the end when it also ends the sentence.
Examples:
"You are being a dickface," she said to me. WRONG
"You are being a dickface", she said to me. RIGHT
They claimed that they were "indie," but it was all a lot of hogwash. WRONG
They claimed that they were "indie", but it was all a lot of hogwash. RIGHT
BUT:
And he told me, "Go forth and prosper you ungrateful little fuck!" RIGHT
DOUBLE BUT:
The fuckers claimed that they were "indie!" WRONG
The fuckers claimed that they were "indie"! RIGHT
2. If a parenthesis ends with a period, exclamation mark, or question mark, and that parenthesis also ends the sentence, there should not be a period outside the parenthesis.
Examples:
So you see, it's not that I didn't understand him (as I've already explained a hundred times goddamit!). WRONG
So you see, it's not that I didn't understand him (as I've already explained a hundred times goddamit!) RIGHT
3. Em-dashes must be separated with spaces from the words before and after.
Examples:
But a person cannot be "evil" universally—only from the perspective of a group whose interests he threatens. WRONG
But a person cannot be "evil" universally — only from the perspective of a group whose interests he threatens. RIGHT