1. Quotation marks & writing dialogue
Grammar notes

2. Basic format She said, “Reptiles are my favorite animals.”
Capital letter to start quote
Comma between tag & quote
Tag
She said, “Reptiles are my favorite animals.”
“Reptiles are my favorite animals,” she said.
Punctuation goes inside

3. When the tag interrupts the quote
The quote is just one interrupted sentence, so use a comma here
“I don’t know,” she said, “if I want to go.”
“I don’t know,” she said. “You should tell me.”
The quote is two separate sentences, so use a period here

4. Indirect quotations
A quote becomes a paraphrase when you use the word THAT
He said, “The bus was late today.”
He said that the bus was late today.

5. Question marks and exclamation points
Sometimes inside the quotation marks, sometimes outside
What’s the difference?
“Does anyone want to go?” she asked.
Did she say, “I can’t go”?
“Hey!” she yelled.

6. A quote within a quote
Ken said, “I’m sure Mrs. Navarro said, ‘Read the book by next Tuesday.’”
“Did Barbie really say, ‘I’ve read the whole book already’?” asked Ken.

7. Quotation Marks & Titles
Quotation marks to signify the titles of short stories, poems, essays, articles, songs, and book chapters
Short things

8. Other Titles
The titles of longer works, like books, movies, TV series, newspapers, magazines, and plays, are italicized (underlined if handwritten)
The Crucible

9. Dialogue and paragraphs
Every time a new person speaks in a story, a new paragraph begins
New paragraphs also start...
New event
Time moves forward
New character enters
New topic becomes the focus