Six Rules for Dialogue

“What are the rules, Ms. Furness?” asked a curious 7th grade class.

“Pay close attention and you will learn these easy to remember rules,” Ms. Furness replied.

Rule #1: Quotation marks are twins!

Did you know that? Quotation marks are twins because they come in a PAIR—they always need to have the other one along with them, somewhere in the sentence.

Do not open a quotation and fail to close it at the end of the quoted material.

Good example:

“I ate an egg McMuffin this morning!” Sam announced.Bad example:

“I ate an egg McMuffin this morning! Sam announced.

Rule #1 continued…

Fix the errors in the sentences below. Remember: quote marks are like inseparable twins:

1. “What do I write here? Molly wondered.2. Tyler thought, Who cares if there’s a

spider in my hair?”3. Christian yelled, Alright! Who took my

pencil?

Rule #2: Capitals aren’t just for maps.Capitalize the first letter of a direct quote:Example:

Sophia, who was working in her yard that morning, said, "The alien spaceship appeared right before my own two eyes.“

Make the changes needed for the next sentence:

Ashton looked around the room, before turning to Ananda, and whispered, do you have any gum?

Rule #3: Use a variety of speaker tags

Speaker tags: they tell us who is speaking and how they are speaking. They are underlined below:

Example:“I couldn’t even sleep last night!” Nelson

shrieked.“Why not?” Cassidy yawned.“Because I couldn’t stop thinking about

how excited I was to go to Language Arts!” Nelson exclaimed.

Rule #3 continued…

It is BORING to read the same speaker tag over and over and over and over again.

Example:“What are you doing?” Justin said.“Nothing,” Taylor said.Then Shivansh walked over and said, “What’s

going on?”“Nothing,” Justin and Taylor said at the same

time.

And then Ms. Furness quit typing because she fell asleep on top of her keyboard because she was SO bored!

Rule #3 continued…

Brainstorm as many alternatives to the word “said” that you can think of.

Compare with the people in your row. Add any new examples to your list.

Rule #4: Quotes MUST be linked to speaker tags!

Quotations, or dialogue, MUST be linked or hooked to the speaker tag with some type of punctuation (i.e. comma, question mark or exclamation point).

Good example:“Good morning, class!” exclaimed

Liz.Bad example:

“What’s up” Liz shouted.

Rule #4 continued…

Read each sentence below. Add an appropriate punctuation mark to

LINK each speaker tag to its word.1. “Who is going to get the books ”

Vanessa asked.2. “I can’t WAIT until Catching Fire comes

out ” Joe shouted.3. “I’m going to get a drink ” Annie

announced.

Rule #5: Speakers are SELFISH!

Much like you probably were as a child, speakers in dialogue are selfish and need their space, or paragraphs.

Example:Lynsey skipped through the daisy

fields singing, “Lalalalalala! Flowers are so pretty!”

Hannah strolled past and muttered, “What a weirdo!”

Rule #6: Dialogue needs action!

You need to add action to make your writing sound interesting.

Boring example:“Hi,” Rajiv murmured.“Well, hello!” Sophia replied.“What’s new?” Rajiv asked.“I’m going to be an author!” Sophia

blurted. (Who cares about any of them because we don’t

know anything about them? Add action to make it more interesting!)

Rule #6 continued…

Better example:

“Hi,” Rajiv murmured as he walked to the bus stop through the wet snow.

“Well, hello!” Sophia replied happily looking up from the book she was reading.

Rajiv noticed Sophia seemed to be in a very good mood and asked, “What’s new?”

Holding up her book, Sophia blurted excitedly, “I’m going to be an author!”

Rule #6 continued…

Add action to the following conversation to make it more interesting:

“Hi,” Taylor said.

“Look at that over there,” Gavin pointed.

“Wow, that’s really interesting,” Taylor replied.

“I can’t believe that you’re not more excited about this,” Gavin replied.