Punctuation of dialogues

One of the important elements of any narrative writing is including the direct speech and dialogues. Direct speech and dialogues make the story live and colorful, and turn the narrative into an interesting and colorful plot, rather then a documented sequence of events. To attain all the beauty, direct speech and dialogues must be used wisely and thoughtfully. Discussing the contents of effective direct speech is out of the scope of this post; today, I want to tell about the form of direct speech; in other words, we are discussing the punctuation of dialogues.

Please note, that dialogues require strict and specific punctuation marks, or syntax. Consider this imaginary conversation:

John said hello, how are you doing, and sat down. Fine, and you? Fine. When did you last meet? About a month ago, why? Just curious, remember when you said hi to me a month ago at Jim’s place.

We are going to change punctuation of this dialogue in steps.

1. surround quotes by quotation marks

Our example from above would change to this:

John said “hello, how are you doing”, and sat down. “Fine, and you?” “Fine”. “When did you last meet”? “About a month ago, why?” “Just curious, remember when you said ‘hi’ to me a month ago at Jim’s place.”

If a quotation goes within a quotation, use single quotes.

2. arrange capitalization and punctuation

John said, “Hello, how are you doing?” and sat down. “Fine, and you?” “Fine.” “When did you last meet?” “About a month ago, why?” “Just curious; remember when you said ‘Hi’ to me a month ago at Jim’s place.”

Any punctuation marks that pertain to the quote must be put inside the quotation marks, i.e. before the closing quotation mark. Any fist occurrence of direct speech in the sentence should start with capital letter. The connection between a quotation label and the quote is typically a comma. The form is: label, “Quote,” label. The comma at the end of the quote is used instead of a period. For other punctuation marks within the quote (e.g. ?, !), no substitution is applied: label, “Quote question?” label.

3. put each quote at a separate line

John said, “Hello, how are you doing?” and sat down.

“Fine, and you?”

“Fine.”

“When did you last meet?”

“About a month ago, why?”

“Just curious; remember when you said ‘Hi’ to me a month ago at Jim’s place.”

4. inform the reader about who is speaking

This step requires adding quotation labels before, after, or inside the quotes. Stephen King advised to avoid adverbs in quotation labels in his book On writing.

John said, “Hello, how are you doing?” and sat down. She wasn’t pleased with his visit, “Fine, and you?” “Fine,” and they glazed at each other… “When did you last meet?” the lawyer intruded. John reacted immediately, “About a month ago, why?” “Just curious; remember when you said ‘Hi’ to me a month ago at Jim’s place.”

Note that naming the speaker is not necessary for every quote; the reader can intuitively determine who is talking at the moment. However, it is important to introduce the speaker before his/her first words (unless you want to intrigue the reader with anonymity). Also, if the speaker talks for the first time, and the quote is longer than one sentence, be sure to introduce him/her before the quote, since introducing him/her after such a long quote would deter reader’s attention significantly.

Alternative puctuation of a dialogue

Sometimes, when the dialogue between the introduced speakers is rather long, alternative puctuation of dialogues — decorating it with dashes — is applicable. In this case, no quotation marks are used, ever (except for quotes within quotes). This style is more difficult because it does not allow quotation labels, which means that the author must manage to keep the reader informed about who is speaking at the moment. If it is impossible for the reader to understand who is speaking at the moment, the author should simply identify the reader, put a colon immediately after it, and then proceed to the quote without quotation marks:

John entered the room and saw his ex-wife with her lawyer. Still a couple, they exchanged salutations and the lawyer began to question them:

— Hello, how are you doing, Carrie?

— Fine, and you?

— Fine.

— When did you last meet?

— About a month ago, why? — said John

— Just curious; remember when you said ‘Hi’ to me a month ago at Jim’s place.

Note, this is a very rare type of dialogue puctuation.