Guest Posted 22 years ago
Grammar
Comma's and quotation marks
My job requires that I write reports on school students, which sometimes includes quotations from teachers. My question is, where do the comma's go when I have a list of quotes from different individuals (teachers), all about the same student and all within the same sentence? Perhaps I shouldn't even be using a comma? Maybe I shouldn't be using anything, I don't know? That's why I'm writing you and why you get the big bucks...right? ; )
I'll provide two examples for your consideration.
In this first example I'll put the comma's outside the quotation marks.
...and her teachers made the following comments about Mary: "She always come to class prepared", "She is a hardworking student", "Performance is improving", and "Mary is a well behaved student."...
In this second example I'll put the comma's within the quotation marks.
...and her teachers made the following comments about Mary: "She always come to class prepared," "She is a hardworking student," "Performance is improving," and "Mary is a well behaved student."...
So there you have it. Thanks for the help.
John
I'll provide two examples for your consideration.
In this first example I'll put the comma's outside the quotation marks.
...and her teachers made the following comments about Mary: "She always come to class prepared", "She is a hardworking student", "Performance is improving", and "Mary is a well behaved student."...
In this second example I'll put the comma's within the quotation marks.
...and her teachers made the following comments about Mary: "She always come to class prepared," "She is a hardworking student," "Performance is improving," and "Mary is a well behaved student."...
So there you have it. Thanks for the help.
John
Top answer
I am not positive, but I would put the commas on the inside. Here are some reference articles to guide you. Guide to Grammar and Style I hope that helps.
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I am not positive, but I would put the commas on the inside. Here are some reference articles to guide you.
Guide to Grammar and Style
I hope that helps.
(broken links removed)
Guide to Grammar and Style
I hope that helps.
(broken links removed)
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Nevermind where the commas go, where do the apostophes go?
Here 'commas' is a plural noun and therefore does not need an apostrophe!
Here 'commas' is a plural noun and therefore does not need an apostrophe!
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Commas almost always go inside quotation marks.
In other news, apostrophes are used for possessive nouns. "Commas" is correct. "Comma's" is not, unless you're referring to something that belongs to that comma.
I realize that this post is five years too late, but for all those people who Google commas and quotations marks together, this post might help someone somehow.
In other news, apostrophes are used for possessive nouns. "Commas" is correct. "Comma's" is not, unless you're referring to something that belongs to that comma.
I realize that this post is five years too late, but for all those people who Google commas and quotations marks together, this post might help someone somehow.
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While we're on it, you should know that commas only “almost always go inside quotation marks” in America. See:
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As a high school English teacher I would use a semi-colon as technically they are all separate sentences except for the "Performance is improving." The other way you could go is to say Mary's teachers said, "She is always prepared, hardworking, well-behaved, and her performance is improving."
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*commas
I disapprove of your use of apostrophes more than your quotation mark troubles.
I disapprove of your use of apostrophes more than your quotation mark troubles.
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Wikipedia is not a scholarly authoritative citation source - despite ranking high in a Google search
Anonymous While we're on it, you should know that commas only “almost always go inside quotation marks” in America. See: Wikipedia.org - Quotation Mark - Punctuation
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It is true that in American English, commas "almost always" go inside the quotation marks. However, you are using a list of statements in separate quotations. This is a unique case. Clarity would suffer if you put them inside the marks, so use your best judgment and place them outside when it makes more sense to do so. I agree with one poster that you could rearrange it so you only have to use on
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