1. Writing Dialogue

2. 1. Begin a direct quotation with a capital letter. Tommy yelled, “Pass the dumplings.”

3. 2. Use quotation marks to enclose a direct quotation. Ellisa screamed, “I want a Cabbage Patch doll for my birthday.”

4. 3. Set off a direct quotation from the rest of the sentence with commas. “You shouldn’t have eaten the chocolate cake,” said Aunt Myrna, “without my permission.”

5. 4. Begin the second part of a divided, quoted sentence, separated by expressions such as “he said,” with a lower case letter. “I know,” muttered Angie, “that you are wrong.”

6. 5. Begin every new sentence with a capital letter, including broken quotations. “The movie just started,” said the usher. “You will still be able to see all of it.”

7. 6. Begin a new paragraph every time the speaker changes. “Hello, Wendy,” said Robin softly. “What should we buy Uncle Wally for his birthday? “Nothing,” yelled Wendy. “He has everything already!”

8. 7. Do not begin a fragment of a quoted sentence with a capital letter. Bo denied that he was a “yellow chicken liver” because he would not walk into the haunted house.

9. 8. Do not use quotation marks to enclose an indirect quotation (not the speaker’s exact words.) The key word “that” tells us these are not the speaker’s exact words. Ellisa said that she wanted a Cabbage Patch doll for her birthday.

10. 9. Place other marks of punctuation when used with quotations marks according to the rules: a. Commas and periods are always placed inside the closing quotation mark. “I don’t know the answer,” answered Stacey, “but I know where to get it.” b. Colons and semicolons are always placed outside the closing quotation marks. Mr. Zigmond said to us: “You all made the team”; what he said after that I don’t remember.

11. c. Question marks and exclamation points are placed inside the closing quotation marks if the quotation is a question or an exclamation; otherwise, they are placed outside. Did Phyllis ask, “What time is it?” “I have and A on the test!” shouted Phil. Did she really just say, “Merry Christmas”?

12. 10. Place the quotation marks at the beginning of each paragraph and at the end of the entire passage when a quoted passage consists of more than one paragraph. Jim explained, “My cousins asked me if I’ll be home on the 4 th of July. They offered to bring snacks and beverages so that we may spend the holiday together. “They start to phone me about the middle of June, reminding me that we haven’t seen each other for a long time. All they really want is to watch the city’s fireworks show from my balcony.”