Which of the following has the correct punctuation? And for those of you running to spellcheck, I've already done that. It accepts both.

On May 1, 1999, Joe Smith was born at University Hospital.

On May 1, 1999 Joe Smith was born at University Hospital.

My 7th & 10th grader say the bottom one.
Judy

I am thinking the top one. It reads smoother. :O)

I say the bottom one too.

Here is a site that might help
Rules for Comma Usage

I think it's the bottom one.

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Living well IS the best revenge!!

I say the top one and here is why. Normally after a date, you would put a comma which would indicate it to be a brief pause. If you went with the second one, it would be read as "On May 1......1999 Joe Smith was born" but the first one would read as "On May 1, 1999....Joe Smith was born". Does that make sense?

I vote for the bottom one

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mom of 3 greats girls

I say bottom one

I say top 1. Seems smoother as stated.

jason

Exactly why I say the top one. I just checked with a first grade teacher and she says the top one, but even she isn't sure. Isn't anybody out there an English teacher?

I'm not sure, so I would just rewrite the entire sentence like this:


Joe Smith was born at University Hospital on May 1, 1999.

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Doing the right thing isn't always the same as doing the easy thing.

ok after reading the site I posted for you it is the first one. See number 10 at the comma site and the examples in the box below it.

It is definitely the first one. My 5th graders just had this type of sentence on their DOL.

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I have been a teacher for 25 years mostly in 4th and 5th grades. I only taught English twice (science is my thing). The first one is correct because a comma is used to separate the date from the year. The comma after the date is there because a comma is used to separate a prepositional phrase (On May 1, 1990,). The word on is a preposition.

I agree with top

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Raising my baby RIGHT!!!!!!

All the cool babies are wearing cloth!

I am a college ESL teacher, and the first sentence is correct for the reason given above. When a prepositional phrase comes at the beginning of a sentence, you need a comma. When it comes at the end (I was born on May 1, 1990.) you don't.

I also say the top - I was always taught that when a date is in a sentence, there is a comma after it.

lisa

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"It's not having what you want,
It's wanting what you've got"

I'm a former court reporter and had to type dates all the time in my transcripts. The first one is correct.

I like the top one better, because it just sounds more clear.

I had the BEST sixth grade English teacher--in 1965--she would have said the top one is correct!

Got the official nod from a h.s. English teacher this morning. We have a winner with number one.

Thanks, everybody!