In celebration of ‘National Punctuation Day’, Brooklyn-based graphic designer Jason Santa Maria created a website that teaches you the difference between ‘smart quotes’ and 'dumb quote'.
Called ‘Smart Quotes For Smart People’, it points out how ‘smart quotes’ have “curly or sloped” ends, while 'dumb quotes' have straight, vertical ends.
“Don’t be dumb. Today is the day. Take a moment to check your sites and your type—especially the big headlines—and correct your quotation marks and apostrophes,” wrote Santa Maria. “We’re not perfect, and neither are our systems, but we should strive to do better. And it’s easy to get this right.”
“Every time you use a malformed apostrophe or quote, someone consciously decides to use Comic Sans. That’s two wrongs and both are your fault. And I know you’re smarter than that.”
[via Smart Quotes For Smart People]