Getting Dialogue Right: How to Punctuate Dialogue and Use Dialogue Tags

Just exactly what is dialogue? 

You are writing this blog post. Why don’t you tell me?

I beg your pardon?

Why, what did you do?

Who are you?―if you don’t mind my asking.

Well, I’m a would-be writer who is hanging around waiting for you to say something interesting.

What is your name?

I am Affan. Can I ask you a question?

Sure. Go ahead.

Okay―what’s dialogue?

Dialogue is a conversation between two or more people.

Like what we’re having right now?

Exactly.

When we have a conversation or dialogue with other people in person we know who is talking but when we write we have to tell which character is talking. We need punctuation marks to surround what is being said. For example, your character Sarah might ask, “It's snowing here, what's it doing there?”

Oh no! I don't know anything about punctuating dialogue!

Fear not!!! Punctuating dialogue isn't difficult if you follow the rules... A dialogue between characters without rules is confusing. Take a look at the huge paragraph below where we have different characters talking back and forth but we're not following any punctuation or paragraphing rules which are creating the confusion. We need to find a way to organize this paragraph so that it's easy for us to see which character is speaking at which point of time right.  

It is extraordinary to me, Dorian, said Hallward, that you should have seen this in the portrait. Did you really see it? I saw something in it, he answered, something that seemed to me very curious. Well, you don't mind my looking at the thing now? Dorian shook his head. You must not ask me that, Basil. I could not possibly let you stand in front of that picture. You will some day, surely? Never. Well, perhaps you are right. And now good-bye, Dorian. You have been the one person in my life who has really influenced my art. Whatever I have done that is good, I owe to you. Ah! you don't know what it cost me to tell you all that I have told you. My dear Basil, said Dorian, what have you told me? Simply that you felt that you admired me too much. That is not even a compliment. It was not intended as a compliment. It was a confession. Now that I have made it, something seems to have gone out of me. Perhaps one should never put one's worship into words.

If you punctuate and format your dialogue properly, it is much easier for the reader to understand. 

"It is extraordinary to me, Dorian," said Hallward, "that you should have seen this in the portrait. Did you really see it?" 

"I saw something in it," he answered, "something that seemed to me very curious." 

"Well, you don't mind my looking at the thing now?" 

Dorian shook his head. "You must not ask me that, Basil. I could not possibly let you stand in front of that picture." 

"You will some day, surely?" 

"Never."  
                                                                                           

"Well, perhaps you are right. And now good-bye, Dorian. You have been the one person in my life who has really influenced my art. Whatever I have done that is good, I owe to you. Ah! you don't know what it cost me to tell you all that I have told you."   

"My dear Basil," said Dorian, "what have you told me? Simply that you felt that you admired me too much. That is not even a compliment." 

"It was not intended as a compliment. It was a confession. Now that I have made it, something seems to have gone out of me. Perhaps one should never put one's worship into words." 

But I don’t know what quotation marks are and where to put them? 

Some scholars believe that the quotation marks began in ancient Greek texts as two curved lines representing a person's lips. 

One curved line was placed at the beginning, as if the writer was saying, “I'm telling you something someone else said.” The other curved line came at the end, to say, “I'm finished writing the words that came out of the other person's mouth.” 

I don't know if this story is really true, but it should be. Two curved lines representing lips make sense since quotation marks should be placed before the first word of a quote the last word.  

Okay. You have convinced me that punctuation rules are important. But I still need to learn what the rules are! I need help! 

Here are 5 rules for punctuating dialogues.   

1. Start a new paragraph each time the speaker changes. 

The basics for the format of dialogue is that each time a new person speaks, it’s a new paragraph, like in this example from The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wild. 

"It is extraordinary to me, Dorian," said Hallward, "that you should have seen this in the portrait. Did you really see it?" 

"I saw something in it," he answered, "something that seemed to me very curious." 

"Well, you don't mind my looking at the thing now?" 

Dorian shook his head. "You must not ask me that, Basil. I could not possibly let you stand in front of that picture." 

"You will some day, surely?" 

"Never."                   
                                                                                  

"Well, perhaps you are right. And now good-bye, Dorian. You have been the one person in my life who has really influenced my art. Whatever I have done that is good, I owe to you. Ah! you don't know what it cost me to tell you all that I have told you." 

"My dear Basil," said Dorian, "what have you told me? Simply that you felt that you admired me too much. That is not even a compliment." 

"It was not intended as a compliment. It was a confession. Now that I have made it, something seems to have gone out of me. Perhaps one should never put one's worship into words." 

2. Use quotation marks in DIRECT quotations.  

Example: 

"My dear Basil," said Dorian, "what have you told me? Simply that you felt that you admired me too much. That is not even a compliment." 

3. Periods, question marks, and exclamation points should go inside ending quotation marks. 

Example: 

"I am in Lady Agatha's black books at present," answered Dorian with a funny look of penitence. "I promised to go to a club in Whitechapel with her last Tuesday, and I really forgot all about it.” 

"My dear Basil," said Dorian, "what have you told me?”  

“Did you see Hagrid sobbing, “I’m so sorry!” 

4. Use commas to start and end dialogue tags or expressions. 

Example: 

"I know you will laugh at me," he replied, "but I really can't exhibit it. I have put too much of myself into it."  

5. After you finish, read over your dialogue to make sure that conversation makes sense. Since people don't always speak in complete sentences, dialogue often contains sentence fragments that aren't grammatically incorrect. Still, it is important that your readers correctly understand the message intended by your speakers.  

Okay, thanks! You have explained to me about punctuation rules but what are dialogue tags? 

A dialogue tag is a text that goes after a character has spoken, such as "he said," and "she whispered. So, in this sentence: "And what is that?" he asked, ‘he asked’ is the dialogue tag. 

Dialogue tags are very important as they tell the readers who is talking, how they speak, and any other actions they took in the middle of a dialogue. They either come before, after or in between the actual dialogue. We ask our poor reader to do a lot of work. She has to keep in mind many different pieces of information, and the tags help her keep track of who's speaking.  

Here are 3 ways to tag dialogue.  

TAG BEFORE THE DIALOGUE 

When dialogue tags are before the dialogue it looks like this: 

Marty asked, “I need help moving this box of toys for the garage sale. Will you help me?”  

How it works:

• Use a comma AFTER the dialogue tag.
• If the dialogue is the beginning of a sentence, CAPITALIZE the first letter.
• End the dialogue with the appropriate punctuation and keep it INSIDE the quotation marks.

TAG AFTER THE DIALOGUE 

When dialogue tags are used after the dialogue it looks like this: 

"He is very good-looking," she said. 

How it works:

• Punctuation still goes INSIDE quotation marks.
• Unless the dialogue tag begins with a proper noun, it is NOT capitalized.
• End the dialogue tag with APPROPRIATE PUNCTUATION.

TAG IN THE MIDDLE OF THE DIALOGUE 

When dialogue tags are used in the middle of dialogue it looks like this: 

"First of all," he said, "if you can learn a simple trick, Scout, you'll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view-"  

How it works:

• A comma is used before the dialogue tag and goes INSIDE quotation marks.
• Unless the dialogue tag begins with a proper noun, it is NOT capitalized.
• A comma is used after the dialogue tag, OUTSIDE of quotation marks, to reintroduce the dialogue.
• End the dialogue with the appropriate punctuation and keep it INSIDE the quotation marks.

Some more tips...!!

• Make your dialogue easy for your readers to understand and read.
• If you are writing with multiple (three or more) characters, use only enough dialogue tags to clearly indicate who is speaking.
• If you are trying to insert action or description, you can use it as the dialogue tag. For example:

Lord Henry laughed. "And what is that?" he asked.  

"I will tell you," said Hallward; but an expression of perplexity came over his face.  

"I am all expectation, Basil," continued his companion, glancing at him.  

Hey, thanks! Now I understand the rules and can't wait to start writing dialogue—correctly!