​What is dialogue?

​Dialogue is when characters are speaking within written text.

​How do we show dialogue?

​There are no speech bubbles to show that characters are talking in regular books.

​

• ​Authors use special punctuation

• ​Authors use dialogue tags

​Quotation Marks

Quotation marks go around the words that are being spoken.

​"I'm going to Disneyland," Mary yelled.

​

• ​The words I'm going to Disneyland were spoken.

  • We put quotation marks around those words​​

  The words Mary yelled identifies who and how the person was speaking.

  • ​We call this a dialogue tag

​Sometimes dialogue looks different.

​The author might use other words to describe speaking.

• ​called, asked, whined, screamed

​The speaking words can come at the beginning or end of a sentence.

• ​He said, "Please come with me."

• ​"Please come with me," he said.

​Punctuating Dialogue

​In a comic, we just write the speaking parts in a speech bubble.

​In a book, we use special punctuation to show speaking parts.

​Speaking Part First

​If the speaking part comes first then

1. put a quotation mark first

2. ​put a comma after last spoken word

3. ​put a quotation mark after the comma

4. ​add your speech tag

5. ​punctuate it with a period

​Speaking Part Last

​If the speaking part comes last then

1. ​Add the speech tag

2. ​put a comma after the speech tag

3. ​put quotation at the beginning of the speaking part

4. ​put the correct ending punctuation

5. ​put the quotation after the punctuation