Page 916 - Wordsmith A Guide to College Writing

Commas with Direct Quotations

5 Use commas correctly with direct

quotations.

A direct quotation is an exact repetition of the words that someone

speaks or thinks. The rules governing the punctuation of direct

quotations are outlined below.

1. When a direct quotation is followed by a tag (such as he said),

a comma goes after the quoted words and in front of the
quotation mark:

“I think I can find the information I need on the Internet,” Javier

said.

2. When a tag leads into a direct quotation, a comma goes after
the tag and in front of the quotation mark:

Sophie said, “If I had the time, I would audit a world history

class.”