Punctuating Dialogue Mrs. Albright

Tags and endmarks A tag is your explanation of who is speaking. (replied Mrs. Albright is the tag) “I love it,” replied Mrs. Albright. An endmark is the punctuation before the tag. (comma is used in this piece of dialogue writing)

Simple rules Start a new paragraph when a new person speaks or a large passage of action interrupts the speaking. Use quotation marks to surround all spoken words on both sides. Use speaker tags to show who is talking Use the proper end marks and they always go inside the quotes.

Endmarks- when to use comma Use a comma if the dialogue is a statement and there is a speaker tag following. Example: “Welcome home,” she said, stepping forward to take his hand.

Endmark - period If no speaker tag follows the quotation: “Welcome home.” She stepped forward to take his hand. “Thank you.” He offered his own hand in return.

Quotation Marks “Fred, I want you to take that new truck back to the dealership,” Mary snarled, “right now!” “No way will you get me to,” Fred paused, “ return that truck.” Only the words spoken are surrounded by quotation marks.

Keep commas and periods inside the quotation marks “ I do not know,” yelled Albert. Albert yelled, “I do not know.” Which one is correct? The teacher screamed, “Everyone needs to line up at the door”. The teacher screamed, “Everyone needs to line up at the door.”

An uninterrupted speech needs quotation marks only at the beginning and the end. “My mother was right. I never should have married you. You only ever think of yourself and I’m always the one who has to suffer.” “Oh cry me a river.” ” I’m the one who came out on the losing end of this marriage!” “Why didn’t you listen to your mother?” Which one is correct?

Start a new paragraph each time the speaker changes. “You can be so cruel some times!” Mary wailed. “Oh I suppose you’ll go crying to your mother now,” Fred sighed. “At least she understands me,” sobbed Mary.

When only two people are talking you do not have to keep using their names. “I understand how you feel, alright?” “You do?” “Aw, you know I do.” “And do you care about me?” “Of course I do.” “So you’ll take the truck back?” “Over my dead body!”

Quote inside of a quote Use single quotation marks for quotes within quotes. This also includes publications that are set off by quotes. Example: He said, "Danea said, 'Do not treat me that way.'" Example: "Everyone will read the short story entitled ‘The Escape' for tomorrow," said the substitute teacher.

Exclamations and Questions An exclamation point or question mark is placed inside the quotation marks when it punctuates the quotation. It is placed outside when it punctuates the main sentence. For example: I almost fell over when he asked, “That won’t be a problem for you, will it?” Did the teacher really say, “Finish by tomorrow”?

Exclamations and Questions When using exclamations and questions in your dialogue be sure to properly punctuate the words following the marks. If the sentence continues and the following words are not proper nouns then you DO NOT capitalize the next word. For example: “Did you hear Mr. Marcoux?” asked Steve. “Watch out!” warned John. “No homework tonight!” Mrs. Tomao asserted.

When it is a thought The use of italics is another clear signal that we are reading someone's thoughts. They are a valuable tool - if they are not over-used. What you are reading here is just a small sample of text, but there are quite a few italics.  Chris slowly descended the stairs, all senses alert. What if someone attacks me? I won't be much use to Laura if I'm dead.  He stopped on the bottom tread, holding his breath and peering into the gloom. Over in the far corner, something moved... or was he imagining things? No, something did move. Chris was sure of it. He swallowed. I wish I had stayed at home.  

More thoughts on thoughts Tip: When you use the tag "he thought", try to get it as close to the beginning of the thoughts as possible. Note in the example above, I've written: No, he thought, something did move. NOT No, something did move, he thought. This is because readers commonly take in chunks of text when they read, rather than reading one word at a time. The closer the words 'he thought' are to the beginning of the thought, the clearer the signal to the reader that things are changing