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Dialogue Notes
What is dialogue?
Dialogue is when you write what characters say using their exact words.
Where do I find dialogue?
Dialogue appears in novels, screenplays, comic books, newspaper article, and pretty much anywhere you see stories in print.
Why is dialogue so important?
Dialogue is one of the fiction writer’s most useful tools in creating character:
· Talk shows the reader what a character is like in terms of mood, age, educational or ethnic background, and intention.
· It reveals the relationships between and among characters.
· Dialogue helps to vary the structure of the story, to break up passages of description and make the writing more lively for the reader.
· It allows the characters as well as the narrator to tell the story.
· Dialogue also helps the characters seem real, and it moves the action forward.
· Sometimes authors use their characters’ spoken words to state the themes of their fiction.
How do we punctuate dialogue? With quotation marks. Quotation marks look like this
“ “ and the characters’ spoken words should go inside.
How do we know who is speaking the dialogue?
Speech Tags identify who is speaking. It makes it clear who said what. Example: “I like music,” Tim said.
Tim said is the speech tag.
Speech tags can go before, at the end, or in the middle of a line of dialogue.
Examples:
John said, “Let’s go to the park.”
“I don’t want to go to the park,” answered Billy.
“If we go to the park,” said John, “We can play football.”
Punctuating Dialogue:
1. Use quotation marks when giving a speaker's exact words (a direct quotation).
Example: Direct quotation -> "Please respect our rules of our comfy couch," said Ms. Burns.
Indirect quotation -> doesn’t need quotation marks: Ms. Burns said we need to respect the rules
of our comfy couch.
2. A direct quotation usually begins with a capital letter:
Example: Mrs. Goldberg questioned, "Why doesn't she bring her book to class every day?"
3. Commas and periods always, go inside of closing quotation marks.
Example: "A classroom without windows," said Ms. Burns, "would be rather sad."
4. When a speech tag (the somebody said part of a quotation) or other types of words interrupt a quoted sentence, punctuate the sentence in the following way:
· Enclose the first part of the sentence in quotation marks.
· Place a comma before and after the interrupting words.
· Enclose the second part of the sentence in quotation marks.
· Begin the second part of the sentence with a lowercase letter.
Example: “I consider myself very lucky,” said Sally Mae, “that I have good hair every day.”
WRONG: “I consider myself very lucky,” said Sally Mae. “That I have good hair every day.” (Because That I have good hair every day is sentence fragment.)
WRONG: “I consider myself very lucky.” said Sally Mae. “That I have good hair every day.” (Ahhh!—too many periods! And it’s still a fragment.)
5. When the speech tag or another type of expression comes at the end of a quoted sentence, punctuate the sentence like this:
· Enclose the directly quoted sentence in quotation marks.
· Put a comma, not a period, at the end of the directly quoted sentence.
· Place a period after the speech tag.
· Begin the next sentence with a capital letter.
Example: “A bird dropping landed in my eye,” exclaimed Tyson. “I’m certainly glad that hippopotami don’t fly.”
WRONG: “A bird dropping landed in my eye,” exclaimed Tyson, “I’m certainly glad that hippopotami don’t fly.” (Ahhhh! A run-on sentence!)
6. If a direct quotation includes several uninterrupted sentences, place quotation marks only at the beginning and end of the quote, not around every sentence:
Example: Reginald sputtered, “My favorite class is Handcrafts 101. Yesterday the class made potholders out of cat fur. Last week we carved figures of jumbo garden insects out of blocks of processed meat.”
WRONG: Reginald sputtered, “My favorite class is Handcrafts 101.” “Yesterday the class made potholders out of cat fur.” “Last week we carved figures of jumbo garden insects out of blocks of processed meat.” (Ahhhh!!! Too many quotation marks!)
7. Place single quotation marks around a quote inside a quote:
Example: “My favorite short story is ‘The Cats of Amarillo’ by Edgar Allan Poe,” announced Moby.
WRONG: “My favorite short story is “The Cats of Amarillo” by Edgar Allan Poe,” announced Moby.
8. In dialogue, begin a new paragraph every time the speaker changes:
Example:
“I need you to knead the bread,” said Ed, “because we’ll need a fresh loaf in
the morning.”
“Hey, I’m no loafer,” shot back Fred, “so quit stewing and stir the stew.”
“Just simmer down and turn up the heat on the turnips,” said Ed.
“Okay,” replied Fred, “but I just wish you’d quit bugging me and squash the
bug on the squash.”
9. If a direct quotation is several paragraphs long from one speaker, put quotation marks at the beginning of each paragraph and at the end of the quote. Don’t place closing quotation marks at the end of each paragraph.
Example:
“Timmy, why don’t you show the class what you brought for Show and Tell?” asked Miss Pimpleton, a slightly frazzled sixth grade teacher.
“Uh, this is my ant farm,” stammered Timmy, standing and holding a plastic container in front of the class. “Ants are fascinating creatures. They are actually very strong. An ant can carry about ten or a million times its own weight. Ants have antennas and some legs.
“My ant farm doesn’t have any ants in it ‘cause I knocked it over this morning and they went all over the kitchen. My mom was kind of mad. She sprayed them and they all died. Which I don’t think is right ‘cause she didn’t spray my hamster when it got loose.
“In conclusion, ant farms are very fascinating to watch, especially if they have ants in them.”
“Thank you, Timmy,” muttered Miss Pimpleton, and tell your mother she has my sympathy.”
Authentic Dialogue: Keepin’ it Real!
Students naturally include dialogue in their narratives (stories). It makes the reading easier by providing breaks in the writing, it reveals a great deal about the character, and it brings the reader closer to understanding and connecting to characters. A difficulty many students face with dialogue is making it believable. People from different parts of town, the country, and the world speak in different ways and with personal variations. To effectively use dialogue, writers need to ensure it sounds authentic –that it reflects the character’s background, geography, and personality. Listen to people around you and take notes on what they sound like they are saying, even if it makes the spelling seem awkward to you, like slang.
Dialogue is part of the “Show, Don’t Tell” writer’s strategy!
SHOW me what happened, don’t just tell that it happened.
Telling only gives the reader information. Boring!
Boring Example: “Maria began getting scared as she reached the top of the roller coaster.”
Showing involves the reader in the story:
“Maria could hear the fading screams of those in the car in front of her. She gripped the bar as the car tilted backward. The menacing click-click of her car slowed as she reached the top, and her stomach went scrambling up into her throat.”
Strategies writers use to SHOW what is happening include:
n describing the character’s actions rather than just saying how he or she feels.
n using action verbs.
n using similes, metaphors, hyperbole and other figurative language.
n using dialogue.
n Appealing to some of the five senses to paint a picture of what is happening (Sensory Details)
Adapted in 2011 by Ms. Burns from Nancie Atwell’s In the Middle: New Understandings About Writing, Reading, and Learning; Kurstedt & Koutras’s Teaching Writing with Picture Books as Models: Lessons and Strategies for Using the Power of Picture Books to Teach the Elements of Great Writing in the Upper Grades; and The Giggly Guide to Grammar by Discover Writing Press.