Teach me how to Dialogue
By: KaSandra Bayliff
What is Dialogue?
How do you punctuate a sentence that starts with a dialogue tag?
Madison said "Wake me up at six."
1. The comma should come before the opening of quotation marks.
2. Capital letter to show the beginning of a sentence inside of the quotation mark.
3. A period to end the sentence.
4. Close the quotation mark.
"Wake me up at six tomorrow," Madison said.
1. Capital letter at the beginning of the sentence inside quotation marks
2. End the quoted sentence with a comma
3. Dialogue tag at the end with a period to end the sentence
What if there is more than one sentence inside of the quotations?
"Wake me up at six tomorrow. I love you," Madison said.
1. Capital letter to show it is the beginning of a sentence.
2. A period ending the first quoted sentence
3. Capital letter to indicate the start of a second sentence.
4. Comma at the end of the second sentence but
5. A period at the end of the sentence and after the dialogue tag to show both quoted sentences have ended.
What does back and forth speaking look like in a story?
Correct:
"I love food so much." Madison said.
"I love tacos and burritos." I said.
"Oh and Guacamole." Madison said.
Also when you have a lengthy conversation it becomes unnecessary to use dialogue tags at a certain point. It sounds tacky.
Correct
"I love food so much." Madison said.
"I love tacos and burritos." I said.
"Oh and Guacamole." Madison said.
"Let's go to tequila's today."
"Okay I'm totally in."
"Meet at 5?"
"Yes see you there."