March 2nd, 2010:

Commas and Quotation Marks

In American English, if you are using a quote that is directly followed by a comma, place the comma inside the quotation marks. Do this even if the comma is not part of the quote.

(Note: this is true as well for periods; however, it is not true for question marks, exclamation points, colons, and semicolons. If any of those four is part of the quotation, place it inside the quotation; however, if it is not part of the quote, put it outside the quotation marks.)

Here is an example of placing a comma that occurs just after a quote:

Example: Paul Harvey concluded with his usual closer, “And that’s the rest of the story,” a line that delights me even now, as I hear it in my mind.

I know, I know: this doesn’t make sense. Why put something inside a quote, if it is not part of the quote? And heck, doesn’t this defeat the entire purpose of quotation marks, since they are supposed to differentiate between what is part of the quote and what is not? (Sigh.)

Well, the British agree with me, so they place the comma outside the quotation marks, which shows that it is not part of the quote:

Example: Paul Harvey concluded with his usual closer, “And that’s the rest of the story”, a line that delights me even now, as I hear it in my mind. (British English)

Still, even if our friends across the pond have a more logical approach than ours, those of us writing in the States should stick with the conventions of American English. (However, even if you are an American, make sure to use British comma placement if you are writing for a British audience.)

Commas and Parentheses

If you use a parenthetical phrase mid-sentence where a comma occurs (which happens frequently in my writing, as you may have noticed), always place the comma after the parenthetical phrase (as seen in this sentence and in the examples below).

Example (correct): Since commas are important to writing (as pauses are important to speech), you should never neglect to use them in your prose.

Example (incorrect): Since commas are important to writing, (as pauses are important to speech) you should never neglect to use them in your prose.

There is sound logic behind this comma placement. In the sentence above, the parenthetical phrase, “as pauses are important to speech” is in response to the clause, “since commas are important to writing.” To show that the parenthetical phrase is to be grouped with that preceding clause, the comma encloses the parenthetical material within the clause. In this sense, the comma enables the clause to swallow up the parenthetical phrase. In effect, the parenthetical material becomes directly linked with the clause it modifies, and not with the clause that follows.

Commas and Periods

In rare cases, writers are faced with situations in which they must place a comma after a period. To the novice eye, placing a comma directly after a period looks odd, so new writers often hesitate at the thought of this particular comma placement.

How is this handled? Simple: Just set aside your fears and boldly place the comma after the period. Look at the example below.

Example: To show real-life examples of effective writing, I often cite the work of Martin Luther King Jr., which is why I keep a copy of his collected writings near my desk.

Related point: this practice does not apply to periods at the ends of sentences. If you have a situation that seems to call for two adjacent periods, do not use two periods. Simply write one period, and it will do double-duty by serving both functions. Consider the example below, in which I have simplified the sentence above so that “Jr.” comes at the end of the sentence. Notice that the single period of that sentence serves two functions: (1) it acts as the period for abbreviating the title, “Junior,” and (2) it acts as the period to end the sentence.

Example: To show real-life examples of effective writing, I often cite the work of Martin Luther King Jr.

Now let’s throw a parenthetical phrase into the mix, to see how it is handled with the ending period:

Example: To show real-life examples of effective writing, I often cite the work of Martin Luther King, Jr. (one reason I keep a copy of his collected essays near my desk).

In that case, I use two separate periods, since the two periods are not adjacent, but separated by the parenthetical phrase. See how that works?

Instructive Point: Did you notice that I placed a comma before the title, “Jr.” in the last example, but not in the two examples that precede it? Which is the correct way–Martin Luther King, Jr. (comma), or Martin Luther King Jr. (no comma)? The answer: it’s your choice. The comma that precedes titles like “Jr.” and “Sr.” is optional. I prefer to use it, so long as it does not disrupt the sentence. I omitted it from the first two sentences, since I did not want it to distract my reader from the comma placement I was discussing in those example sentences. Otherwise, my default is to include the comma, since it shows a slight change in pitch that occurs with such titles.

Further Reading on Comma Odds and Ends

If you are interested in knowing more about these odds & ends of comma usage, I recommend the following books, which continue to inform my own teaching and writing. Click on the links below to view these books on Amazon.com.

• The New Well-Tempered Sentence: A Punctuation Handbook for the Innocent, the Eager, and the Doomed, by Karen Elizabeth Gordon

• Comma Sense: A Fun-damental Guide to Punctuation, by Richard Lederer and John Shore

I recommend both of these books for your library. (In fact, you should keep them near your desk if you plan to do any amount of serious writing.) Although they both cover punctuation, these two books are very different from one another. Comma Sense is, in my opinion, the better, simpler read. However, The New Well-Tempered Sentence (which is still a great read) is the more comprehensive of the two books .

With those differences in mind, I recommend reading these books as companions. (That is, after you read the chapter on commas in one book, read the other book’s chapter on commas, and do the same with the other corresponding chapters.) If you read in this way, read the chapter from Comma Sense first, and the chapter from The New Well-Tempered Sentence second. If you must choose only one, I recommend Comma Sense for those who are new to punctuation, but I recommend The New Well-Tempered Sentence for advanced writers.

We are nearing the end of these conversations on commas. The next article will cover the use (or lack) of commas between adjectives. After that, we will discuss the stylistic use of commas, and then conclude this series on commas.

To go to the next article, which covers using (and not using) commas between adjectives, click the link below:

• Comma Odds & Ends: Should I Place Commas between Adjectives?

Christopher Altman, a community-college composition specialist, is passionate about bringing the art of effective writing to average, everyday Americans. He has published work in the field of medieval literature, and has authored a book on advertising language entitled, Telling the Truth to Deceive: How Advertisers Manipulate the English Language. Mr. Altman is an assistant professor of English at Onondaga Community College in Syracuse, New York.