Rules for Punctuating Dialogue - Mr. Assael's English Classes



Rules for Punctuating, Paragraphing, and Capitlizing Dialogue

1. Use quotation marks before and after the EXACT words spoken.

“I love frogs,” he said.

2. Separate the direct quote from the attribution with a comma, a question mark, or an exclamation point.

“They’re too slimy,” she replied. “Why do you like them so much?” she went on to ask.

“I love the way their eyeballs bug out,” he answered.

3. Commas and periods at the end of a direct quote ALWAYS go INSIDE the closing quotation mark; colons and semicolons go on the outside.

“Yuck, that’s the worst part,” she said. “It looks like their eyes are about to explode.”

Tom replied sarcastically, “You say that like it’s a bad thing”; she smiled at him and left the room.

4. Begin the direct quote with a capital letter.

She replied, “Frogs give me the heebie-jeebies.”

An exception might occur if the direct is blended with an indirect quote.

She said that frogs gave her the “heebie-jeebies.”

5. When the direct quote is a complete sentence and is broken up by an attribution in the middle of the quote, the second part of the quote does not begin with a capital letter.

“Why do you think,” he asked, “that frogs have this effect on you?”

6. Question marks and exclamation points are placed inside the closing quotation mark when only the direct quote itself is a question or an exclamation.

Who said, “I like snakes better than frogs”?

She said, “Who likes snakes better than frogs?”

7. Start a new paragraph each time the speaker changes.

“I guess I won’t be getting you any frogs for your birthday this year,” he said with a creepy laugh that made her skin crawl.

“Thank you,” she replied.

8. When dealing with a direct quote inside another direct quote, use regular (double) quotation marks for the overall quote and single quotation marks for the quote inside of it. In all other cases, never use more than one other punctuation mark along with a closing quotation mark

.

Ronald called Rosalie and asked, “What did Daphne say?”

Rosalie replied, “Daphne said, ‘Those people having that bizarre conversation about frogs were a couple of weirdoes.’”

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