|
There are
rules for using commas in quotes.
1. Begin quotations with
a capital letter.
2. Quotation marks always
come in pairs and are used to set off a speaker's exact words.
3. If the quote comes
before the person who spoke and tells something, place a comma
after the quote, before the closing quotation mark.
| Example:
"Today
we are going to study about the water cycle,"
the teacher told the class. |
4. If the quote comes
after the person who spoke and tells something, place the comma
after the person who spoke, before the opening quotation mark.
| Example: Amber
said, "We
use water for so many things." |
5. If the quote comes before
the speaker and asks something, then a question mark is used in place of the
comma.
| Example:
"Why
don't we ever run out of water?"
Sam asked. |
6.
If the quote comes after the person who spoke and asks something,
place the comma
after the person who spoke.
| Example:
Mrs. Jones responded, "Why
don't you read about it in your science book?" |
7. If the quote uses
strong emotion, use an exclamation mark in place of the comma.
| Example:
"It would be awful if we did
run out of water!" Mary exclaimed. |
8.
If the quote comes after the person who spoke and uses strong emotion,
place the comma
after the person who spoke.
| Example:
Mark chirped in, "With
evaporation, condensation, and precipitation occurring all the time,
we will never run out of water!" |
9. A quote separated by the person who spoke is called a split
quotation. Begin the first part of a split quotation with a capital
letter, and end with a comma.
Place a comma
after the person who spoke and begin the second part of a split quotation
with a lower case letter. Enclose both parts of the split quotation with
quotation marks.
| Example:
"Yes
class,"
the teacher explained, "the
water cycle provides us with the water we need and it never
ends." |
 |
Using dialogue really makes writing
interesting. Commas are used to set off/separate the exact words of a
speaker from the rest of the sentence.
