Dialogue Punctuation
by Gower
How to Punctuate Dialogue, by Dr. Gower, English Professor, Ph.D.
If you write U.S. English
1. "It's dangerous to go alone! Take this."
This is just a quoted sentence. It doesn't say who spoke it; it is just quoted.
Note that there are double quotation marks surrounding the quotation.
Note that the period goes IN the quotation marks.
2. "It's dangerous to go alone! Take this," said the old man.
This is a quotation with attribution at the end. When you attribute, change the period to a comma.
The comma still stays in the quotation marks.
3. The old man said, "It's dangerous to go alone! Take this."
This is a quotation with attribution at the start. Link the attribution to the quotation with a comma.
4. "It's dangerous to go alone! Take this," the old man said. "It's a sword."
This is a quotation with attribution in the middle. Treat it just like #2 above, changing the comma to a period. Put a period after the attribution. After the attribution, open up new quotation marks for the rest of the quotation.
Don't do this: "It's dangerous to go alone! Take this." the old man said. "It's a sword."
Don't do this: "It's dangerous to go alone! Take this," the old man said, "It's a sword."
Summing Up:
1. Use double quotation marks
2. Periods and commas go IN quotation marks. There is an exception to this rule, but I'll save that one for later, and it will rarely come up for you when writing short stories, so don't worry about it.
3. I may not have mentioned that I am an English professor. I am.
If you write U.K. English
1. 'It's dangerous to go alone! Take this.'
This is just a quoted sentence. It doesn't say who spoke it; it is just quoted.
Note that there are SINGLE quotation marks surrounding the quotation.
Note that I put the period IN the quotation marks. That is because UK English insists that if the originally said thing had a period at the end, you have to put it in the quotation marks.
If the original quotation were something like "If you don't eat your meat, you can't have any pudding! How can you have any pudding if you don't eat your meat?" and I wanted to quote an excerpt of that in UK English, I might write
'If you don't eat your meat, you can't have any pudding'.
I'm using single quotation marks, and since the original didn't have a period at the end, I have to put the period outside the quotation mark.
2. 'It's dangerous to go alone! Take this', said the old man.
This is a quotation with attribution at the end. When you attribute, change the period to a comma.
The comma is outside the closing quotation mark.
3. The old man said, 'It's dangerous to go alone! Take this.'
This is a quotation with attribution at the start. Link the attribution to the quotation with a comma.
Note single quotation marks.
The original sentence has a period at the end, so I can put it inside the quotation mark at the end.
4. 'It's dangerous to go alone! Take this', the old man said. 'It's a sword.'
This is a quotation with attribution in the middle. Treat it just like #2 above, changing the comma to a period. Put a period after the attribution. After the attribution, open up new quotation marks for the rest of the quotation.
Don't do this: 'It's dangerous to go alone! Take this.' the old man said. 'It's a sword.'
Don't do this: 'It's dangerous to go alone! Take this,' the old man said, 'It's a sword.'
Summing Up:
1. Use single quotation marks.
2. Periods and commas go in quotation marks IF you are honest-to-god quoting the original punctuation. If you aren't, put them outside the quotation marks.
3. Not an assistant professor, or an associate professor. A full professor.
What about question marks and exclamation points?
(Switching back to U.S. English)
Rebecca said, "Hi!"
Rebecca said, "Hi"!
Which is right? They are both right. But they mean different things.
The first one attributes the excitement to Rebecca (the ! is in the quotation marks).
The second one attributes the excitement to the narrative voice (the ! is out of the quotation marks).
"What fresh hell is this?" asked the Discord visitor.
The question is part of the quotation, so the question mark is inside the quotation marks.
Do you agree with the old expression that "a picture is worth a thousand words"?
The question is not part of the quotation, so the question mark goes outside the quotation marks.
What about Single Quotation Marks?
Single quotation marks in U.S. English are used solely for quotation within quotations.
"I don't know that I would call my singing 'yak-like,' regardless of this critic's claims," sniffed Rory.
Here, "yak-like" is a quotation within a quotation, so it gets single quotation marks around it.
"I don't know that I would call my singing 'yak-like,'" sniffed Rory.
Here, the quotation-within-a-quotation ends the quotation. So you end up with a single and a double quotation mark next to each other. This is perfectly fine.
What about Single Quotation Marks in UK English:
Same as U.S. English, except the other way around. Start with single quotation marks, and use double quotation marks for quoting within quotations.
Important FAQ:
Q: Do you have tenure?
A: Yes, I do. Thank you for asking.
