Punctuating Dialogue

Punctuating dialogue is not difficult, but there are rules that apply. Let’s look at an example:

          “Honey, we’re out of milk,” Joe said.

Notice how Joe’s direct speech is enclosed in double quotation marks (North American style). The quotation marks indicate to your reader that Joe is speaking out loud. What follows his comment is called a dialogue or speaker tag. Dialogue tags identify who is speaking. Something to note: The general rule regarding dialogue tags is to keep them simple unless the intended meaning of the sentence is ambiguous. Some authors turn to a thesaurus to avoid repeating the word “said.” This habit is unnecessary and can lead to improper usage. For example,

          “Honey, we’re out of milk,” Joe grimaced.

Technically, Joe can’t “grimace” a sentence. If it is important to your story line that Joe state this sentence while grimacing (or smiling or sighing etc.), then the proper usage is as follows:

          “Honey, we’re out of milk,” Joe said with a grimace.

Now, back to punctuation. In North America, commas and periods always fall within closing quotation marks:

          “Honey, we’re out of milk,” Joe said.
          Joe said, “Honey, we’re out of milk.”

Where exclamation marks and question marks fall depend on content, however. Consider the difference:

          “Honey, are we out of milk?”
          What did you mean when you said, “We are out of milk”?

Ellipses are used when the speaker’s voice trails off:

          “Honey, we’re out of milk again…”

An em dash is used when a speaker is interrupted:
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          “Honey, we’re out of—”
          “I know!” she responded sharply.

And finally, remember that each new speaker begins on a new line (see above example). Happy writing!