Hi, everyone! I’m Mr Ryan from Lil’ but Mighty. Dialogue is one of the most powerful tools in a composition. It brings characters to life and moves stories forward. However, it also comes with a set of punctuation rules that trip up many students.
So today, we are taking a look at five most common mistakes students make when punctuating dialogue and how we can fix them.
Mistake #1: Missing or Misplacing the Speech Tag Punctuation
A speech tag is a word that tells us who is speaking and how. For example, said, gasped, yelled, explained, whispered or scolded.
When dialogue is followed by a speech tag, a comma must sit inside the closing quotation marks to link the two parts of the sentence. Many students forget the comma entirely, or place it outside the quotation marks.
Are these correct?
“We have run out of milk” she reported.
“We have run out of milk”, she reported.
They are both wrong! If the speech is not at the end of a sentence, ensure that you tuck a comma safely inside the quotation marks!
When the comma is safely tucked, the correct form looks like this:
“We have run out of milk,” she reported.
Keep your commas safe between the quotation marks!
Mistake #2: The ‘Capitalisation’ Trap (Using Speech Tags Correctly)
Here is the key principle to understand first: when a sentence contains both dialogue and a speech tag, the whole thing is considered one grammatical sentence. The speech tag is not a new sentence! It is the second half of the same one.
This matters because many students see an exclamation mark or question mark and assume a new sentence is starting. It is not!
Is this correct?
“Get lost!” The man yelled. This is, in fact, wrong!
“Mr Ryan!” you might exclaim, “How can that be? Shouldn’t “The” be capitalised after an exclamation mark?” Well—
Even though the dialogue ends with an exclamation mark, “the” remains lowercase because it is in the middle of one complete sentence.
It should look like this:
“Get lost!” the man yelled.
Some more examples of sentences obeying this rule:
“Come here,” he said.
“What’s going on?” he asked.
Mistake #3: Starting with the Tag (Misunderstanding the “Gateway Comma”)
What happens if the speech tag comes before the dialogue?
Is this correct?
The man yelled, “get lost!”
It’s wrong! Wait, shouldn’t ‘get’ be in lowercase since it is in the middle of a speech sentence! It is a little tricky but you must remember that the starting word of a speech has to be capitalised. Thus, it should be:
The man yelled, “Get lost!”
Remember:
1. Always place a comma after the speech tag if it is placed in the beginning of a sentence
2. Always capitalise the first word of the speech / dialogue
Mistake #4: Confusing a speech tag with an action tag
This is perhaps the trickiest mistake. Students often follow dialogue with an action tag, which is a description of what the character is physically doing, and treat it as if it were a speech tag. The problem is, an action tag does not describe how someone is speaking, so it cannot act as a bridge from the dialogue.
Is this correct?
“I can’t help you,” he leaned back in his chair.
The above sentence is wrong! Why? There is no speech tag in the sentence! “Leaned back” is not a speech tag because it does not describe how the person is speaking and is instead an action tag.
Thus, the correct form should be:
“I can’t help you,” he said, leaning back in his chair.
A speech should always be followed by a speech tag instead of an action tag.
Mistake #5: The “Broken Sentence” Slip Up (Speech Tags in the middle of the Dialogue)
The next example may not appear as often and rules might vary. However, we will follow the Cambridge rules regarding this. Sometimes, a speech tag interrupts a single, continuous thought.
Is this correct?
“Look,” he said, “There is no good way to say this.”
Wrong! If the dialogue is one whole sentence split in the middle by a speech tag, do not restart the sentence with a capital letter.
Take a look at the correctly written sentence:
“Look,” he said, “there is no good way to say this.”
The dialogue is a whole sentence, only interrupted by the speech tag. Therefore, when continuing the dialogue, the word “there” is written in lower case.
Conclusion
By mastering these 5 mistakes, your compositions will not only be easier to read but you will also avoid losing precious language marks in your composition exams!
If you want to brush up on your punctuation for dialogue, you can check out our other 2 videos here!
Ketchup on Punctuation… Speech Marks!
Creative Writing & Compo | How to Punctuate Direct Speech
Also, you can download a free worksheet below to test your understanding of the rules you have just learnt!
Download your Free Punctuation Practice Worksheet
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