Should I use a comma after "it should be noted that"?

Question

Should I use a comma after "noted that" in the following sentence?

Tom and Dick, while driving the car, noted that at speed bumps, the suspension was making noise.

A preliminary Google search indicates both usages. Here is an example from Becker, Marshall H. "The health belief model and sick role behavior." Health Education & Behavior 2.4 (1974): 409-419:

However, it should be noted that, at extremely high or low levels of anxiety, the data for sick role and for preventive health behaviors are similar

... but which one is ideal: comma or no comma?

Answer 1

The sentence is unambiguous without a comma after "noted that." Therefore I would not put a coma there. For the same reason, I wouldn't put a comma after "bumps." I don't like commas unless they do something.

Answer 2

The Chicago Manual of Style has this to say:

6.26 Commas with restrictive and nonrestrictive phrases. A phrase which is restrictive--that is, essential to the meaning (and often the identity) of the noun it belongs to--should not be set off by commas. A nonrestrictive phrase, however, should be enclosed in commas.

As for your sentences:

1. No, and I agree with R. Gold there shouldn't be one after "bumps" either.

2. Yes, comma

It has to do with whether your sentence makes perfect sense without the clause in question.

In Example 1, the car only makes a suspicious sound at speed bumps, so the parenthetical element "at speed bumps" makes that part of the clause essential and thus restrictive.

In Example 2, try saying your sentence without "at extremely high or low levels of anxiety." No problem. Nonrestrictive clause. They take the commas.

Answer 3

Tom and Dick, while driving the car, noted that at speed bumps, the suspension was making noise.

The relevant fact here is not that "noted that" is used, but, rather, "at speed bumps" is a "parenthetical" phrase.

The same is true for the phrase following "noted that" in your second example. There is no logical reason to insert a comma following "noted that", on its own account, but it is common (but not "required") to place commas around parenthetical phrases. You can see this is what was done in your second example -- there are commas on both sides of "at extremely high or low levels of anxiety", as it is treated as an "optional" phrase (it can be deleted without changing the syntax).

Whether to use commas around parentheticals is a personal choice thing -- it depends on how much it aids in comprehension and in maintaining "normal-sounding" language.

But if one comma is used then both must be used. It is not valid to omit the comma before "at speed bumps" but include one afterwards.

Answer 4

"note that" introduces an indirect discourse construction. and so there are at least two speakers involved: the original speaker (or writer) who is being quoted and the one who is doing the reporting. The various choices of wording in the quoted material can potentially be attributed to either the original speaker or the quoter.

Appositives, including at least non-restrictive relative clauses and parenthetical material, are ordinarily attributed to the reporter and not necessarily the original speaker. That is, such material need not be part of the quotation. Since there is ordinarily no pause between the complementizer "that" and its complement, the comma after "that" in your examples forces the interpretation that the reporter is responsible for the information after "that" and enclosed by the commas.

For your second example with "it should be noted that", the issue of whether the original speaker or the reporter is responsible for the wording doesn't seem to arise -- they are the same person. So I don't think the comma-intonation makes any difference.

Answer 5

In the example sentence structure, the comma in question is not the usual stand-alone comma (pause-indicator punctuation), but part of a pair of commas forming a delimiter for a parenthetical phrase:

However, it should be noted that, at extremely high or low levels of anxiety, the data for sick role and for preventive health behaviors are similar; …

The clause enclosed within the pair of commas is a parenthetical. The sentence can be read, and would be grammatically correct, with or without the parenthetical part.

However, in the sentence in question, the parenthetical clause is different and is correctly enclosed in a pair of commas already. As such, no comma would be needed after "noted that" in this case.

Tom and Dick, while driving the car, noted that at speed bumps, the suspension was making noise.

We note that the issue is not at all about "noted that" being anything special that warrants a comma after it.

HTH.