How to Punctuate Dialogue

The first thing to remember when you are punctuating dialogue (the speaking part of the sentence) is that there are two main parts to the sentence you'll be working with.

First is the actual dialogue-> "This is far from over" (we'll get to the punctuation shortly)
Second is the character doing the speaking-> Mozart

Let's look at the different ways we can write these two parts into dialogue. Keep a close eye on the punctuation and capitalization - these are the two main sources of difficulty for many students (and teachers). Here's the example:

"This is far from over," said Mozart.
or
"This is far from over!" shouted Mozart.
or
Mozart asked angrily, "Is this almost over?"

The most common way to include dialogue in a sentence is with what is called a tag line. A tag line is just a short piece of the sentence that tells who is speaking the dialogue (or where it is coming from), and how they are speaking it. The words "said Mozart" and "Mozart asked angrily" are the tag lines of the above sentences because they tell the who and the how of our dialogue. Let's look at some important points we learn from the punctuation and capitalization in the three sentences above.

1. Dialogue is capitalized if it starts a new complete thought, like example 3. (Is this almost over?) Tag lines that follow dialogue are treated as a continuation of the sentence, which means they are not capitalized. See examples 1 or 2. (said Mozart)

2. Punctuation is always placed inside the quotations. Almost. There are some exceptions which we will get to later, but for the majority of dialogue's common uses you can consider this a rule. See how the question mark and exclamation point fall inside the quotation marks in examples 2 and 3?

3. There won't be two periods in a sentence--unless, of course, there is more than one sentence within a part of dialogue. After a piece of dialogue that falls in the middle of a sentence, we use a comma instead of a period to separate the dialogue from the tag line. However, if the dialogue ends the sentence and does not require a question mark or exclamation point, the period is used to finalize.

4. Tag lines and dialogue must be separated by some kind of pause. In the above sentences it was a comma. You will separate a sentence with a comma if the tagline and dialogue are part of the same thought. What do I mean by "part of the same thought"? Here's an example:

"This is far from over." I could tell that Mozart was angry.
or
"This is far from over," said Mozart. "Leave me alone!"
or
"This is far from over," said Mozart, "and I want you to leave me alone!"

Notice:

In example 1, the second half is a complete and separate thought. In this case, the dialogue is not connected to this sentence, so they are separate sentences.

In example 2, the initial dialogue and the following tag line are connected, so we use the punctuation rules we learned earlier. The last bit of dialogue in that example is a separate exclamation, so we treat it as a second sentence.

In example 3 we have a special case. If you want to put a tag line in the middle of a single stream of dialogue you separate everything with commas and treat the dialogue as if it is one sentence. Notice that the first and last part of dialogue are a single complete thought. If you were to connect them it would read, "This is far from over and I want you to leave me alone!" We are able interrupt what is being said to tell who is speaking or to create emphasis on a certain part of the dialogue. Use commas to set off the tag line and the second half of the dialogue.

Here are some other cases to watch out for:

First, a piece of dialogue by itself:

"Is this boring lesson on dialogue almost over?"
or
"This needs to end soon. I'm getting bored."

Remember, punctuation still falls inside the quote marks. By using dialogue without a tagline we are assuming, of course, that the reader knows who is speaking.

Additionally, each time you have a new speaker you must make a new paragraph, which means starting a new line and indenting. Example:

"Is this almost over?" Mozart wanted to know if the grammar handout he was reading was close to finished.
"Yes," said the tutor. "In a few moments you will be an expert."

When you quote within a quote, use single ' marks, and treat the punctuation and capitalization as you would a regular quote. Example:

Harriet asked, "Did you read Tolkien's 'The Hobbit' over Christmas break?"
or
Harriet asked, "Did he really say 'I forgot'?"

This last example may strike many as confusing. Why was there no punctuation inside the quote marks around 'I forgot'. This is the unique case in which the punctuation falls outside of the quotation marks. More accurately, there is no punctuation within the quotation marks. There's that tricky missing period again! It was dropped when the punctuation outside the short dialogue overrode what would normally be a correctly placed period. See how the question mark following the dialogue "I forgot" is not a part of that quotation, but a part of the sentence outside it? Since 'I forgot' is not a question in this case, but that piece of dialogue fell at the end of a questioning sentence, we have to drop the period accommodate. Another example is the following:

I cannot believe he said, "I forgot"!

To further complicate matters, this concept will sometimes result in doubly-punctuated dialogue:

I cannot believe he said, "Did I forget?"!

That should be all you need to know about punctuating dialogue. It can difficult to master at first, but it's really quite easy once you have the hang of it. Hope this helped!