Dialogue is one of my favorite things to write, and i wish that my job as a technical writer offered more or any opportunities for writing it. However, some writers find punctuating dialogue confusing: how do i use quotation marks? what is a dialogue tag? where do the commas go? how come i see writers who don 39 t even use quotation marks? wait, is that an em dash?! this article will both cover the basic ways to punctuate dialoge in american english and explore some of the less traditional methods. We will focus on dialogue in prose writing that is being spoken by characters in the story. Dialogue or direct discourse is usually enclosed in quotation marks, either single like these: lsquo __ rsquo , or double, like these: ldquo __ rdquo.

In american english, you are most likely to see the double quotation marks used to indicate a character or person speaking who is not the narrator. Dialogue usually uses dialogue tags such as ldquo she said, rdquo ldquo he screamed, rdquo ldquo they murmured, rdquo etc. Dialogue tags are a subject and a verb that indicate who is speaking and the method of the speech spoken/yelled/whispered.

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In most cases unless a dialogue tag that indicates thought is used , material inside the quotation marks is considered spoken material. I think the best way to explain it is to start with some examples of the different ways dialogue tags can be used. Capital letter to indicate the beginning of a sentence inside the opening quotation mark. Capital letter to indicate the beginning of a sentence inside the opening quotation mark. A comma to end the quoted sentence before the closing quotation mark that precedes the dialogue tag. Rdquo capital letter to indicate the beginning of a sentence inside the opening quotation mark. Lower case letter to indicate the second piece of the quotation is still a part of the sentence that began in the first piece of the quotation.

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Rdquo capital letter to indicate the beginning of a sentence inside the first opening quotation mark. A period at the end of the sentence and after the dialogue tag to indicate that the sentence with the first piece of quoted material has ended. Capital letter to indicate the beginning of a sentence inside the second opening quotation mark. The second piece of quoted material appearing on the same line as the first to indicate that the same person/speaker said both pieces of quoted material, even though the second piece of quoted material does not have a dialogue tag.

Capital letter to indicate the beginning of the second sentence inside the quotation marks. A comma to end the second quoted sentence before the closing quotation mark and before the dialogue tag. A period at the end of the sentence and after the dialogue tag to indicate that the sentence that contains both sentences of quoted material has ended. Rdquo all the rules listed above are followed, plus the quoted material of the second speaker starts on a new line as a new paragraph. Rdquo all the material inside the quotations is punctuated and capitalized like a normal sentence, but the opening quotations appear before the first sentence and closing quotations after the last sentence.

The quoted material of the second speaker still starts on a new line as a new paragraph. Mary was on her way to the grocery store when she saw frank out in the front yard mowing his overgrown grass. He waved for her to come over because they needed to talk about the upcoming block party, but she didn rsquo t have time just now. Rdquo all rules are followed as noted above, and each piece of quoted material starts as a new paragraph, indented and on a new line.

Rdquo as mary speaks first, her quoted material does not have to start in a new paragraph, especially because her speech is relevant to the topic of the paragraph. Her dialogue tag is written into the description of the scene, so it rsquo s entirely appropriate to write her dialogue into the first paragraph. Frank rsquo s dialogue, however, must start on a new line, indented as a new paragraph. For example: ldquo okay, i rsquo ll talk to you tomorrow, rdquo replied frank as he bent to start the rusty mower. Once again, i turn to noah lukeman rsquo s excellent book a dash of style for clues on how to manipulate quotations and other punctuation to elicit different moods when writing dialogue. Mary was on her way to the grocery store when she saw frank out in the front yard mowing his overgrown grass. Rdquo ldquo well, i just wanted to ask you if we should get veggie burgers, too.

Rdquo ldquo oh, and should we get gluten free buns, too? rdquo ldquo uh, sure hellip let rsquo s talk tomorrow. Rdquo with few dialogue tags, the back and forth clip of frank and mary rsquo s conversation speeds up the text from the long descriptive section to a quick exchange between the two characters that does as much to show their personalities as long lines of descriptive prose would have. Dialogue tags get the section started, but as the dialogue gets going, the tags are no longer needed as the words of the characters allow the reader to infer the characters tone and mood easily without the wordiness of mary said/frank said. The fact that a new paragraph is used for each line of dialogue draws the reader down the page at a rapid pace thus propelling the reader forward through the story. One would not want to read an entire story like this, but it can be a tool for speeding up long sections of prose. 19 november 2012 updated 19 january 2013 in the first of our four part 'teach yourself to write' series, irving weinman, a published writer and creative writing tutor explains how to write great dialogue. how much supporting narrative should you write for your dialogue? enough.