1. Writing effective passages of dialogue.

2. Why is Dialogue important in stories?
It:
breaks up the narrative.
makes our writing lively.
is useful for characterization.
is excellent for showing reactions to events and relationship between characters.
helps to tell the story from different views.

3. Add the narrative
Sometimes we can lose detail in our writing if we only use dialogue.
Always add description to passages of dialogue so that your reader is not only hearing what is said but can see what is happening, where it is happening, or how our characters are behaving.

4. Dialogue Sample.
“What can I bring you?” asked the father.
“All I want from you is that you return home safely.”
“But I must bring you something,” said the father.

5. Improve the dialogue with a line of description.
“All I want from you is that you return home safely.”
“But I must bring you something,” said the father.
Bella hugged her father close and whispered:
At this the other two sisters laughed and thought how stupid Bella was not to ask for something.

6. Dialogue Rules (1)
Use quotation marks to begin and end a direct quotation. Separate the quoted material from the dialogue tag by commas. Punctuation goes inside the quotation marks.
“Dialogue is important to include in stories,” stated the teacher.

7. Dialogue Rules (2)
If the quote is a question or exclamation, then use a question or exclamation point. Punctuation goes inside the quotation marks.
“Dialogue is important to include in stories!” shouted the student as a reminder to his friend as his bus accelerated out of the bus circle.

8. Dialogue Rules (3)
The speaker’s words are set off from the rest of the sentence with quotation marks, and the first word of the quotation is capitalized.
“It’s nice and sunny outside,” stated John.

9. Dialogue Rules (4)
Both parts of a divided quotation are enclosed in quotation marks. The first word of the second part is not capitalized unless it begins a new sentence.
“It’s been too long,” began Joy, “since last we met.”

10. Dialogue Rules (5)
When you write dialogue, begin a new paragraph whenever the speaker changes.
“I’m happy to see you today,” laughed the teacher. “We’re ready to begin our skits.”
“I’m happy to be here,” replied Judy, smiling.

11. Dialogue Rules (6)
Use a pair of dashes to indicate an abrupt break in thought or speech or an unfinished statement or question.
“First of all, you can do anything you –”
“No, I can’t!” Davey interrupted.

12. Dialogue Rules (7)
Use three spaced ellipsis points (. . .) to indicate a pause in written dialogue.
Ex. “Well, I don’t know,” Sarah answered.
When someone’s words “trail off,” you also use 3 ellipsis points.