Should I use a comma after story and after the question mark as shown below?

“Have you ever read the story, ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’ by Edgar Allan Poe?,” Dave asked.

And, should I use a comma after say and after the question as shown below?

“Did the professor say, ‘Put down your pencils’?,” Janice asked.

No commas after question marks.

You DO need a comma after Heart and before the quotation mark in #1.

Yes, you should use a comma after "story" and after the question mark in your first example sentence. However, you should not use a comma after "say" and after the question mark in your second example sentence.

To understand why, let me break it down for you.

1. "Have you ever read the story, 'The Tell-Tale Heart' by Edgar Allan Poe?," Dave asked.

In this sentence, the comma after "story" is used to separate the introductory phrase "Have you ever read the story" from the actual quotation, "'The Tell-Tale Heart' by Edgar Allan Poe." This comma helps to clarify the structure of the sentence.

The comma after the question mark is used to separate the dialogue tag "Dave asked" from the rest of the sentence. This is because the tag is providing information about how the dialogue is spoken.

2. "Did the professor say, 'Put down your pencils'?," Janice asked.

In this sentence, the comma after "say" is not necessary because the question mark already serves the purpose of separating the quotation from the dialogue tag. Including an extra comma could be seen as redundant.

Similarly, there is no need for a comma after the question mark. Since the dialogue tag immediately follows the question mark, there is no need to separate them with a comma.

In summary, when using quotation marks and question marks, it is important to use commas strategically for clarity and to follow standard punctuation rules.