Lesson 3: Elements of Fiction

Skill Lessons

Quotation Marks in Dialogue

In many writings, the author will have characters speak to each other. Dialogue is people talking to each other. It’s easy to tell who is speaking when we are talking face-to-face, but it’s harder when we have to write out that conversation. To keep readers from getting confused, authors help us out by using quotation marks as signals.

Quotation marks are used in written dialogue to show someone’s exact words. Quotation marks around dialogue look like this: “Hello.” They come at the beginning and the end of the exact words that a person says in a piece of writing. They are easy to pick out in reading and useful when you are writing. They work kind of like a traffic signal. They tell you to get ready for someone speaking. That way you don’t get confused as you are reading. When you write, you use the same signals to help your readers.

Note that quotation marks are also used to surround words that an author is quoting directly from another written work. So in some text, like this discussion, quotations marks don’t always mean that someone is speaking. You’ll have to use the context to decide when they mean that a character is speaking.

In dialogue, quotation marks are used to surround the group of words that tell exactly what a person says. They can come at the beginning, in the middle, or at the end of a sentence. A writer will often use a tag to help you know who is talking. You’ll see an example of a tag below. Look at the sentence below and figure out what is being said and what part is the tag.

“I can’t believe I won the race,” said Sam.

“I can’t believe I won the race” is the quote. It is what the person actually said. The tag is “said Sam.” It tells you that Sam was speaking.

Did you notice that there is a comma inside the quotation marks at the end of what Sam said? This comma is another signal. It tells you that the sentence is not finished. When there is a tag at the end of the sentence, we use a comma inside the quotation marks to tell the reader to keep going. You will notice that there is a period at the end of the tag. That period is the signal that the sentence is complete. It’s like a STOP sign.

Sometimes a tag can come at the beginning of a sentence. When a writer does that, it looks like this:

Sam said, “I can’t believe I won the race.”

Did you notice that there is a comma to act as the signal that the sentence is not finished but that you need to pause and look ahead? Did you notice that the quotation marks start the quotation before the word “I” and end after the period? This period signals the end of both the sentence and the quote. Do you see how punctuation works like traffic signals? Hey, you might just be practicing to get your driver’s license by taking Fifth Grade Language Arts!

Sometimes a tag can even come in the middle of a quote. Here is an example:

“I can’t believe,” said Sam, “that I won the race.”

Look at those punctuation signals. What are they telling you? The comma after “believe” tells you there is more to the sentence. The quotation marks after “believe” tell you what comes next will not be exact words. The comma after “Sam” signals that the sentence still isn’t finished, so keep going. The quotation marks in front of “that” tell you Sam is talking some more. Because “that” is not capitalized, you know it is a continuation of the sentence. Finally, you get to the STOP sign and the end quotes that tell you the sentence is finished. Wow! That’s a lot of information from just a few little signs, isn’t it? Think how important it is to use the right signs at the right time. Otherwise, the reader might have a wreck! Can you imagine how confusing a story with talking would be if no quotation marks were used?

If the person is asking a question, a question mark should be used instead of a period. If a quote shows great excitement, use an exclamation mark in place of a period. Remember that capitalization is another type of signal to the reader that tells when a sentence begins. Look back at your Daybook and find examples of each of these kinds of quotations.

There’s one more thing you need to know about dialogue. The signal an author uses to begin a new paragraph is called indenting. We see indenting used mostly when something is handwritten, but you will also see indenting in books. I am using what is called “block style” to type the instructions in this course, but it doesn’t work very well for stories or text that has dialogue. When I write in block style, I leave an extra line between paragraphs. When you indent, you don’t have to leave an extra space between paragraphs, because the indented space signals the reader that the writer is changing topics. Look at one of the fiction books you have. Do you see where the author has left a blank space at the start of some sentences? When you indent, you space over about a finger width (or use the tab key on your computer to move your cursor over the width of about five spaces) and then start to write.

Each time a new person starts to speak, a writer must start a new paragraph. That is the signal that says, “Hey readers, I’m going to have a different person say something here.” Even if the character only says one word, you must start a new paragraph. Otherwise, we would get confused, or the writer would have to keep telling us who is talking and when that character stops. Do you see how the author of the fiction book you are looking at has indented the dialogue? You can just look at the page and immediately see whether people are talking.

Self-Check: Put in the correct punctuation for the following dialogue. (I have already put in the paragraphing to help you.) You can write your answers in your journal or on a piece of notebook paper. Share your work with your parent/teacher and then check your answers.

Hi Sam said Martha Where are you going?

Sam turned around and said I thought I would ride my bike to the store and get a candy bar.

Can I come with you asked Martha

Well I guess you could answered Sam if you have a bike.

Now practice writing your own quotations. Use the examples above and the examples you find in your Daybook as patterns for your practice. Write at least three examples of each type of quote. Share your work with your parent/teacher.

You should now complete the instructor-scored progress evaluation for lesson 3. After you complete this progress evaluation, you will be ready to go on to lesson 4. You will be building on the elements of literature you learned in lesson 3 to help you become a better reader and writer. You will find some of the information you learned in this section on the computer-scored progress evaluation at the end of lesson 4, so be sure to return to review this lesson again at the end of lesson 4.