Dialogue and Quotation Marks

If you introduce a speaker, separate it with a comma. Direct Quotations: Use quotes to surround the information that is to be directly cited, this includes what a person says. If you introduce a speaker, separate it with a comma. Capitalize the first letter in the quote if it is the beginning of a sentence. Ex: The monster said, “Why am I so ugly?” Ex: “Because,” the doctor replied, “you are a wretched monster.” Notice that there are commas around both sides of the doctor replied because the sentence being quoted is continued.

Ex: “No,” it said. “I am not wretched!” --In this case, No is an interjection and should be ended with a punctuation mark, but the comma is used, and the punctuation moved to after the explanatory remark. What is wrong with this example: He said “I don’t want to hear you whine about how you don’t want to be wretched”!

Always place commas and periods inside quotation marks. Colons and semicolons belong outside quotation marks. Place an exclamation mark or a question mark inside the quotation marks if it is a part of the quote; if it is a part of the sentence (not the quote), put it outside the quotation marks; if both, use only one inside the quotes.

Ex: He said, “I think so”; however, I’m not sure if he was or not. --Note the semicolon outside the quote. Ex: Did he say, “I don’t know”? --“I don’t know” is not a question, so the question mark goes outside. Ex: Did he ask, “What do you think?” --Notice that both the quote and the sentence are questions with one interior question mark.

Woah! That makes my head spin! Use single quotation marks around quotes within a quote. Ex: He said, “I think he told me to ‘Go jump in a lake.’” Ex: The teacher told us, “My mom always said, ‘Play with bulls, get gored.’” Ex: She said, “I heard Billy say, ‘Gert said, “She’s smelly.”’” Woah! That makes my head spin!

P-P-Paragraphing! When writing dialogue, start a new paragraph and a new set of quotations whenever the speaker changes. Tip: You don’t always need to write “he said..” or “Billy said….” Sometimes it is implied and can be easily figured out by the reader. That helps when the “he said” thing becomes monotonous.

This excerpt is taken from Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card

If a speaker talks over multiple paragraphs, leave the end of the paragraph open (no quote mark), but put a quote mark in at the beginning of the next paragraph of dialogue.

This excerpt is taken from Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card

Put unknown or unusual slang or expressions in quotes Put unknown or unusual slang or expressions in quotes. Put directly stated definitions in quotes. Ex: I yelled at my sister for saying “cut the cheese”; it’s slang that means “flatulence.”