Formatting Dialogue and Quotations

Quick Tips for Formatting Dialogue and Quotations

Rule # 1: A direct quotation begins with a capital letter.
Jimmy shouted, “See you at the game!”
“What time will you be there?" asked Cindy.

Rule # 2: When a quotation is interrupted into two parts with words like “he asked” or “the teacher demanded,” the second part begins with a lower case letter.
"I love writing essays," said Jake.
"Especially narrative essays and we get to write dialogue!" said Ashley.

Rule # 3: When writing dialogue, all punctuation marks at the end of the quotation go inside the quotation marks.

“Let's visit the Whitney Museum,” said Robert.  

Rachel replied, “Didn't we go there last weekend?”  

Rule # 4: Do not put a period at the end of a quotation followed by speaker indicators like she said, mom asked, he explained, etc. You can use commas, question marks, and exclamation marks but not periods. 

“My math class is driving me crazy!” Kelly yelled.  

“That's my favorite class,” Lance replied.  

Rule # 5: You should start a new paragraph and indent it when a different person begins to speak. This makes the dialogue between whoever is speaking easier to understand.