Comma with Dialogue or Quote Integration

Jared Aragona

Comma with dialogue or quote integration: Use a comma to shift between the main discourse and a quotation. A comma before and after signal phrases in the middle of a sentence.

 

According to John Fowles, “There should be four main aims in a good education . . .”

John Fowles writes, “There should be four main aims in a good education.”

“The first,” Fowles writes, “is the one that pre-empts all present systems.”

“The first is the one that pre-empts all present systems,” Fowles writes.

Do not put a comma if your quote is integrated into the grammar of the sentence [H9]:

John Fowles believes that “[t]here should be four main aims in a good education.”

 

The MLCKRB (Master List Code Key and Rule Book): An English Grammar & Style Handbook by Jared Aragona, CC BY 4.0

 

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Comma with Dialogue or Quote Integration Copyright © by Jared Aragona is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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