For whatever reason, quotation marks are one of the most overused and misused punctuation marks in the English language – people don’t seem to understand that if you’re not using them to demarcate dialogue, then you should probably only use them sparingly. Even worse is when people use their fingers to create air quotes when they’re talking – we should probably just leave them on the page, right? If you’re familiar with that annoyed feeling one gets when someone excessively uses air quotes while speaking, you’re going to be chockfull of eye rolls and discomfort when you read this list. As you can see, the presence of unnecessary quotation marks can change the entire meaning of what you’re reading. The quotation marks in #34 make me downright nervous.
