Tips #001
Grammar is very important in presentation. Whether just to share a story here or when compiling a query for a publisher. No one expects perfect grammar, or I'd be totally screwed. *lol* ... But having as correct of grammar as possible, is always better. It reads smoother and more importantly, it reads precisely the way you mean. Publishers have been known to skip great stories, because the query contained too many errors.
Today's tip is on dialogue punctuation.
Do you end a piece of dialogue with a comma or with a period? Both are used with dialogue. But each is used in specific cases.
Here's a sample dialogue.
1. "Hi, Jane," Dick said.
2. "Hi, Dick."
3. "How are you?" Dick was curious how Jane's day had gone.
1. Notice I used a comma after the first piece of dialogue "Hi, Jane,"... this is because there is a qualifier "said" following. Dick said is part of the same sentence as "Hi, Jane" Therefore the period to end the sentence comes at the end of that sentence. A comma is used to show the sentence has not ended.
2. Notice a period was used. Because there was no qualifier following what was spoken, the sentence ends there, therefore a period is needed.
3. Notice I used a period again, but there is more text following. The sentence ended after "you". The "Dick was curious..." is a new sentence and separate from the first. So a period is used, even though it relates to the dialogue.
Make sense? Questions? Is this useful? Did I just waste a monumental amount of your time? *lol*
