English 9

Rule #1  All words spoken by a character must be surrounded by quotation marks  A direct quotation can come at the beginning or end of a sentence. Example: “Hello,” Jim said. Jim said, “Hello.”

Rule #2  A direct quotation begins with a capital letter. I looked at Joe when he asked, “What smells?”  If a quotation is interrupted, the second part begins with a lower-case letter. “Jim,” she asked with a grin, “are you going to lose this match, too?”

Rule #3  A direct quotation is set off from the rest of the sentence by commas  If a direct quotation is interrupted, commas are placed before and after the interruption.  The comma before a direct quotation falls outside the quotation marks. The comma, or any punctuation, after a direct quotation falls inside the quotation marks “Make sure,” she said sternly, “you take the trash out before you go to school.”

Rule #4  Dialogue is less formal than other kinds of writing. Your goal should be to make your characters sound natural This sometimes calls for shorter sentences, contractions, and slang.  Instead of “What are you doing?” “What’s up?” or “What up?”

Rule #5  In a conversation between characters, start a NEW paragraph (indent 5 spaces) each time the speaker changes! “Where are you going? Mom asked. I answered quickly, “I’m going to Jim’s to study.” “On a Friday night?” “I meant Joe’s. We’re going to watch the game.” “You’re not goin’ anywhere!” I was caught in a lie, and I silently walked to my room thinking, “I’ve got to get better at that!”

Rule #6  Be careful not to use the word “said” too often. Use other livelier verbs, such as whispered, yelled, mumbled, or cried…  Besides using he said or she said, there are lots of other dialogue tags you can use in your story to add variety askedadmittedanswered explainedagreedshouted whisperedpleadeddemanded criedwarnedmumbled