1. Make a new heading in your notes.
Quotation Marks
Make a new heading in your notes.

2. A. use Dialogue Tags: “he said” or “she wrote” or “they asked”
After the dialogue tag, put a comma between the quote and the dialogue tag and capitalize the first word of the quote.
I.E. Jesse said Wow, Kelli runs fast!
 In each of the following sentences, find the error that needs to be corrected:
“My feets is tired, but my soul is rested” Mother Pollard announced.
He walked into the county courthouse, entered the sheriff’s office, and asked, “are you looking for me? Well, here I am.”
* The text inside quotes does NOT have to be grammatically correct.

3. B. Dialogue tags in the middle of a quote
2. When using a tag line in the middle of a quote:
a. Put a comma at the end of the 1st quote,
b. A comma after the tag line,
c. and do NOT capitalize the 2nd quote.
Write your own sentence as an example in your notebook or borrow mine.
I.E. “Wow,” Jesse exclaimed, “Kelli runs fast!”
Correct this sentence:
“And so, my fellow Americans” President Kennedy said “ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.”

4. C. Don’t use a comma when…
a. You make the quote part of your own sentence by using the word “that”.
Jesse heard the announcer say that “runner number 27 is coming in second.”
But as the weeks passed, he began to realize that, “many of the threats were in earnest.”
4. Don’t use a comma when:
a. You include a small phrase from the quotation in the middle of your sentence. NO comma.
Kelli’s medal read “second place” in gold lettering.
He scolded them for acting like cowards, for backing down like “Little boys.”

5. End punctuation: Inside or outside?
5. End punctuation marks (? ! .) usually go in the inside of quotation marks.
Jesse exclaimed, “Wow, Kelli runs fast!”
6. Unless the quote is at the end of your main sentence.
The title of the news paper article said that “Due to the oil spill, sea life is in danger!”.

6. Make quoting text easier by:
7. Use ellipses ( … ) A.K.A. the dot-dot-dot strategy to shorten quotes.
Before: “The richest man is the one who can be happy when he is poor—he who needs the least.”
After: “The richest man is… he who needs the least.”
8. Use brackets [ ] to insert your own words, definitions, etc…
Before: “A picture is worth a thousand words.”
After: “A picture is worth [at least] a thousand words.”