Writing Tips

Punctuating Dialogue

✧

➸ “This is a sentence.”

➸ “This is a sentence with a dialogue tag at the end,” she said.

➸ “This,” he said, “is a sentence split by a dialogue tag.”

➸ “This is a sentence,” she said. “This is a new sentence. New sentences are capitalized.”

➸ “This is a sentence followed by an action.” He stood. “They are separate sentences because he did not speak by standing.”

➸ She said, “Use a comma to introduce dialogue. The quote is capitalized when the dialogue tag is at the beginning.”

➸ “Use a comma when a dialogue tag follows a quote,” he said.

“Unless there is a question mark?” she asked.

“Or an exclamation point!” he answered. “The dialogue tag still remains uncapitalized because it’s not truly the end of the sentence.”

➸ “Periods and commas should be inside closing quotations.”

➸ “Hey!” she shouted, “Sometimes exclamation points are inside quotations.”

However, if it’s not dialogue exclamation points can also be “outside”!

➸ “Does this apply to question marks too?” he asked.

If it’s not dialogue, can question marks be “outside”? (Yes, they can.)

➸ “This applies to dashes too. Inside quotations dashes typically express—“

“Interruption” — but there are situations dashes may be outside.

➸ “You’ll notice that exclamation marks, question marks, and dashes do not have a comma after them. Ellipses don’t have a comma after them either…” she said.

➸ “My teacher said, ‘Use single quotation marks when quoting within dialogue.’”

➸ “Use paragraph breaks to indicate a new speaker,” he said.

“The readers will know it’s someone else speaking.”

➸ “If it’s the same speaker but different paragraph, keep the closing quotation off.

“This shows it’s the same character continuing to speak.”

More Posts from Pursuingimmortality and Others

pursuingimmortality

1 year ago

continuing the trend set by

dr seuss -- stole from Helen Palmer, his wife

paul klee -- stole from Hilma af Klint

andy warhol -- stole from Hilma af Klint

albert einstein -- stole from Milena Maric, his wife

cy twombly -- stole from Hilma af Klint

hayao miyazaki -- stole from Akemi Ota, his wife

leo tolstoy -- stole from Sophia Tolstoy, his wife

otto struve + henry norris-russell + ejnar hertzsprung -- stole from Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin

george lucas -- stole from Marcia Lucas, his wife

f scott fitzgerald -- stole from Zelda Fitzgerald, his wife

john steinbeck -- stole from Sanora Babb

karl marx -- stole from Jenny von Westphalen, his wife

watson and crick -- stole from Rosalind Franklin

piet mondrian -- stole from Marlow Moss

jackson pollock -- stole from Janet Sobel

wolfgang amadeus mozart -- stole from his sister, Maria Anna (Nannerl) Mozart

felix mendelssohn -- stole from his sister, fanny mendelssohn

today i had the dubious honor of learning that william wordsworth stole entire passages out of the journals his sister, Dorothy Wordsworth, wrote.

"The Grasmere Journal and Wordsworth's other works revealed how vital she was to her brother's success. William relied on her detailed accounts of nature scenes and borrowed freely from her journals. This passage is clearly brought to mind when reading William's 'Daffodils', where her brother, in this poem of two years later, describes what appears to be the shared experience in the journal as his own solitary observation. Her observations and descriptions have been considered to be as poetic if not more so than those of her brother."

3K notes View Post

pursuingimmortality

1 month ago

Hmmm I know octopuses are generally sweet and gentle and are just curious sea puppies (and I love them!), that being said, the thoughts of being dragged by my feet by one of them into the deep and dark ocean is… safe to say new fear has been unlocked

Source

47K notes View Post

pursuingimmortality

9 months ago

“Cis women who don’t pass” is such an insane thing to say. Do you even hear yourself? “Cis women” don’t need to “pass as women”. We literally ARE women, it’s that simple. The concept of passing doesn’t make the slightest sense when applied to a person who doesn’t identify as trans.

2K notes View Post

pursuingimmortality

2 weeks ago

this might be a hot take but i think that most women do have some radfem beliefs but choose not to share them out of fear of harassment or don’t recognize them as radical beliefs because of how radical feminism has been demonized.

1K notes View Post

pursuingimmortality

3 weeks ago

I hate when I say things like "oh I want an ipod classic but with bluetooth so I can use wireless headphones" and some peanut comes in and replies with "so a smartphone with spotify?" No. I want a 160GB+ rectangular monstrosity where I can download every version of every song I want to it and it does nothing except play music and I don't need a data connection and don't have to pay a subscription to not have ads and don't have popups suggesting terrible AI playlists all over the menus.

Gimme the clicky wheel and song titles like "My Chemical Romance- The Black Parade- Blood (Bonus Track)- secret track- album rip- high quality"

96K notes View Post

pursuingimmortality

8 months ago

going to center my human experience around female experience. befriend and build deep relationships with women. enjoy women’s art and writings. listen to female artists, speakers, and role models. read books about women, watch movies about women, and donate to charities for women. work with women, study with women, plan trips and outings with female friends and colleagues. support female creators and buy artworks of women. i am going to enjoy my life so much by caring for and being cared by women.

1K notes View Post

pursuingimmortality

1 year ago

hobbies masterpost!

a really excellent way to reduce anxiety is to pick up a new hobby. find something you’re interested in, learn it, then use it as a healthy and productive way to cope.

learn to play guitar

learn how to make interactive stories with the free program Twine

learn how to make pixel art

learn another language

learn how to build a ship in a bottle

learn how to develop your own film

learn how to embroider

learn how to make chiptunes (8-bit music)

learn how to make origami (the art of paper folding)

learn how to make tumblr themes

learn how to make jewelry

learn how to make candy

learn how to make terrariums

learn how to make your own perfume

learn how to make your own tea

learn how to build birdhouses

learn how to read tarot cards

learn how to make zines

learn how to code

learn how to whittle (wood carving)

learn how to make candles

learn how to make clay figurines

learn how to knit scarves

learn how to become an amateur astronomer

learn some yoyo tricks

learn how to start a collection

learn how to start body building

learn how to edit wikipedia articles

learn how to decorate iphone cases

learn how to do freelance writing

learn how to make your own cards and

learn how to make your own envelopes

learn how to play the ukulele

learn how to make gifs

learn how to play chess

learn how to juggle

learn how to guerrilla garden

learn how to chart your family history

learn how to keep chickens

learn how to do yoga

learn how to do magic tricks

learn how to raise and breed butterflies

learn how to play dungeons & dragons

learn how to skateboard

learn how to do parkour

learn how to surf

learn how to arrange flowers

learn how to make stuffed animals

500K notes View Post

pursuingimmortality

1 week ago

The whole 'men evolved to hunt, women evolved to gather' thing is total nonsense.

Evidence shows women have always hunted. They found a 9000 year old female hunter buried with weapons in Peru, and there’s a ton of other research showing women were just as involved in survival work as men.