Rules For Punctuating Dialogue

Rules for using quotation marks (rev. 9/14)

1) Use the same capitalization within a quotation as you would if it were a normal sentence.

a) A full direct quotation always begins with a capital letter. Ex. He said, “Only if we do all our homework first.”

b) When a quoted sentence is divided into two parts, the second part begins with a lower case letter. Ex. “You may go,” said our father, “if you are done with your homework.”

2) A direct quotation is divided from the remainder of the sentence by a comma, question mark, or an exclamation point. You do not need to add a comma if there is already punctuation separating the quotation from the sentence.

Incorrect: “That’s right.” said Ms. Blea.

Correct: “That’s right,” said Ms. Blea. “Yea!” exclaimed the class when they learned they were going to play a game. “What time does class let out?” Herman asked his teacher for the twentieth time.

3) Begin a new paragraph every time the speaker changes.

Ex. “What are you doing after school today?” Patricia asked her best friend as they were walking out of seventh period. “I don’t know yet. I do have a lot of homework to do today,” said Amy. “I was thinking of going to the volleyball game. I was hoping you would go with me.”

4) Commas and periods always go inside the closing quotation marks.

5) Closing quotation marks go at the end of the quoted passage and not at the end of each individual sentence.

Incorrect: “Hi.” “How are you?” I asked. Correct: “Hi. How are you?” I asked.

6) Question marks and exclamation points are placed inside the closing quotation marks if the quotation is a question or an exclamation. If they are not, the punctuation goes on the outside of the quotation marks.

Ex. “What’s for dinner?” the young girl asked her mother. Did I hear her say, “Don’t start”?

7) Use single quotation marks to enclose a quotation within a quotation. Ex. “She said, ‘Open you books to page twelve,’” replied Marcy. Rules for using quotation marks (rev. 9/14)

8) Colons and semicolons are always placed outside the closing quotation marks.

Ex. Mr. Smith said, “Don’t forget to double-space your paper”; however, I was busy talking to my neighbor and single-spaced my paper.

Ex. The following students according to Ms. Jackson have “hit the jackpot”: Cindy Moore, Alan Jordan, and Trina Lopez.

9) When a quoted passage consists of more than one paragraph, put the quotation marks at the beginning of each paragraph and at the end of the entire passage.

Ex. “Fellow sophomores,” said Tommy, opening the meeting, “permit me first of all to thank you for turning out in such good numbers. Despite our dismal turnout up until now, I think this packed room proves that the sophomore class is determined not to take second place to the freshmen. “Until recently, we have simply not been ourselves. As you know, the freshmen have more people on the honor roll and on all the school teams. Perhaps we are ready to change all that.”

10) A long quotation (four or more typed lines) is set off with a colon and then started on a new line. The line is indented an additional tab from the position for a new paragraph. The quotation is not put in quotation marks.

Using quotations for concrete details (examples included at the bottom)

11) First, be sure that your quotation is necessary. If you do not refer to the actual words in the quotation, you may not need the quotation. If you are writing about an action in the novel, chances are you may only need to paraphrase. Also, be sure to include only the portion to which you refer. Keep the passage as short as possible.

12) Introduce the quotation. Make the quotation part of your own sentence. You may want to give some background on what is happening at the time of the quotation.

13) Include the necessary citation information at the end of the sentence. In parenthesis you should include the author’s last name (as that is the information that you would look for in the works cited page) followed by a space and the page number on which it is located.

Examples: As a narrator, John notifies the audience, “I was the one who suggested writing this thing [the novel] because I couldn’t stand the miserable look on Lorraine’s face ever since the Pigman died” (Zindel 4).

Mathabane’s disgust at the thought of going to school is finally dissipated by his mother’s diatribe on how education is the key to escape: “Education will open doors where none seem to exist” (Mathabane 286).

Even though Granny screams at Johannes after he accidentally boarded the wrong bus, Granny’s love and concern for her grandson is still apparent since she apologizes for losing her temper: “After a long pause, during which she clamed down, Granny said, ‘Forgive me for the outburst, child, but what you did was no small thing in the eyes of white people and the law’” (Mathabane 303).