1. “She said what?” YOUR GUIDE TO PUNCTUATING DIALOG

2. Why do we punctuate dialog?  To set off the exact words of the speaker from the rest of the sentence. Finally my mother said come inside now. Finally my mother said, “Come inside now.”

3. How to punctuate dialog: 1. Place quotation marks at the beginning and end of specific dialogue. “Why did you go to the market?”

4. How to punctuate dialog: 2. Capitalize the first letter of all dialogue. “Why did you go to the market?”

5. How to punctuate dialog: 2. Capitalize the first letter of all dialogue. “ Why did you go to the market?”

6. How to punctuate dialog: 3. Add speech tags to clarify who is speaking. “Why did you go to the market?” Paula said.

7. How to punctuate dialog: 3. Add speech tags to clarify who is speaking. “Why did you go to the market?” Paula said.

8. How to punctuate dialog: 4. At the end of a quotation, use a comma in place of a period if you are going to add a speech tag. *Use a period, exclamation point, or question mark if the dialogue ends the sentence. “I wanted to buy oranges for my fruit salad,” John said. John said, “I wanted to by oranges for my fruit salad.”

9. How to punctuate dialog: *If the quotation ends with an exclamation point (!) or a question mark (?), use that punctuation instead of a comma. “I wanted to buy oranges for my fruit salad!” John shouted.

10. How to punctuate dialog: 5. Start a new paragraph when a different character speaks. “Why did you go to the market?” Paula said examining the contents of the grocery bag. “I wanted to buy oranges for my fruit salad, John explained.

11. How to punctuate dialog: *exclamation points, question marks, and commas are always placed inside quotation marks. WRONG EXAMPLE: “Why did you go to the market”? Paula asked. RIGHT EXAMPLE: “Why did you go to the market?” Paula asked.

13. How to punctuate dialog: 6. When a character speaks in paragraphs, do not close the end of a paragraph with a quotation mark if it is not the end of the quotation. (However, do begin the next paragraph with an open quotation mark.)