I'm a bit confused about a few punctuation rules, and after a bit of web surfing, I still can't find the rules I need. Please tell me if the following sentences are correct:


1. "You waste my time with such a minor problem," said my supervisor.

(Should the comma after "problem" be a period since the quote is a complete sentence?

2. Unless we change the itinerary, we will be visiting the Louvre in Paris, France on Monday, the British Museum in London, England on Tuesday, and the Prado in Spain on Friday.

(Should there be a colon after "visiting"? Are the placements of the commas correct? It seems like an awful lot of commas... so I'm not sure if this is right, but it very well might be.)

3. Did you hear Jamal say, "I began reading Durer's latest book entitled 'In the Jaws of the Shark,' but found it too frightening to finish"?

(Are the apostrophes around the book title correct? Is the comma after "Shark" correctly placed? I'm pretty sure the question mark should be outside of the quotation mark as shown since the whole statement is the question, not just the quote.)

4. As a matter of fact, I am flying to Honolulu, Hawaii at the end of the week; but I will return next week.

(Are the commas and the semi-colon correct?)


Please answer only if you're fairly sure that your response is correct. Thanks!

1) No. If you use a period you have a new sentence reading 'Said my supervisor'

2)There should be a comma after 'France' and after 'England' because Paris and England here would be in brackets. It is Paris (France) and London (England) being written by using commas as bracketing commas.You could, in theory, use a colon because what follows is a list . (It would look a bit odd). It is not necessary. The comma that you have put between 'Tuesday' and 'and' is a 'gapping comma' and is optional. It's a personal choice. I would not put one there. It makes an unnecessary pause (and adds to the commas !)

3) In England we would not put a comma before the quotation. What purpose does it serve? Commas are used where there is a break in a continuing quote. We write " The purpose of punctuation," said the teacher," is to make our meaning clear". The comma after the quotation is a 'joining comma' which comes before 'but' and is correct.The marks around the title of the book are correct.(You could italicise the title instead and then dispense with the marks)

4)There should be a comma after 'Hawaii' . It would make a pair of bracketing commas [see 2 above]. Use a semi-colon to connect two complete sentences not joined by and, but, yet or while.It is to join two related statements. Here it does not. Use a 'joining comma' instead.

How's that ?

The book title should be in italics or underlined. Poem titles, articles, and chapter titles are in quotation marks.

You may want to purchase either The MLA Style Sheet or The University of Chicago Manual of Style for answers to these and other questions.

2) Most American grammar and style books say that there should be a comma before the and.

3) In England, I'm sure Fred is right. In Virginia, the comma before the quotation is required.

1. "You waste my time with such a minor problem," said my supervisor.

OK

2. Unless we change the itinerary, we will be visiting the Louvre in Paris, France on Monday, the British Museum in London, England on Tuesday, and the Prado in Spain on Friday.

Use commas after "France" and "England" since the sentence would have the same meaning if these words were omitted. Only if the sentence would be difficult to understand would you use semi-colons after "Monday" and "Tuesday."

3. Did you hear Jamal say, "I began reading Durer's latest book entitled 'In the Jaws of the Shark,' but found it too frightening to finish"?

Italicize or underline the book title, and put a comma after "book" because the title does not change the meaning of the author's latest book. Omit "entitled" which is unnecessary and may even be incorrect; anyway, "titled" sounds better.

4. As a matter of fact, I am flying to Honolulu, Hawaii at the end of the week; but I will return next week.

Use a comma after "Hawaii" and no semi-colon unless you remove the conjunction "but." You need a comma after "week" because you wrote "but I." Had you omitted the "I" you would also omit the comma.

Thanks so much guys! All of your comments helped tremendously.

quote:

3. Did you hear Jamal say, "I began reading Durer's latest book entitled 'In the Jaws of the Shark,' but found it too frightening to finish"?

Since the speaker is quoting Jamal, I think this would actually be the "most correct":

Did you hear Jamal say, "'I began reading Durer's latest book, entitled In the Jaws of the Shark, but found it to frightening to finish'"?

quote:

) In England we would not put a comma before the quotation. What purpose does it serve?

I'm learning Standard British right now.

I agree with you that the comma serves no true purpose, but we always use it in American English.