This document provides guidelines for punctuating dialogue in writing, including using tag lines before and after quotes and splitting quotes with a tag line in the middle. It demonstrates inserting commas and periods around tag lines and quotation marks to properly punctuate who is speaking. It also notes that new paragraphs should start when the speaker changes and tag lines may not be needed for every line in lengthy conversations.

1. Punctuating Dialogue

2. Terms
• Dialogue: a written conversation
• Tag lines: words that identify the speaker

3. Tag line before the quote
• Put a comma after the tag line.
• Put the quotation in quotation marks.
(Capitalize the first word in the sentence and
keep end punctuation within the quotation
marks.)
• Example: Crooks said well you been takin’ ‘em
out of the nest all the time. I wonder the old
lady don’t move ‘em someplace else.

4. Example
• Crooks said, “Well you been takin’ ‘em out of
the nest all the time. I wonder the old lady
don’t move ‘em someplace else.”

5. Tag line after the quote
• Put the quote in quotation marks.
• Replace the period with a comma (within the
quotation marks) and put a period after the
tag line.
Example: George won’t do nothing like that he
repeated
• If the end punctuation is ? or !, do not replace
it with a comma.
Example: What? he demanded.

6. Examples
• “George won’t do nothing like that,” he
repeated
• “What?” he demanded.

7. Tag line in the middle of the quote
Tag line splits two separate sentences of the
quote:
• Put a comma at the end of the first part of the
sentence (within the quotation marks).
• Put a period after the tagline and quotation
marks around the remainder of the quote
(including end punctuation).
Example: I was just supposing he said George
ain’t hurt. He’s all right.

8. Example
• “I was just supposing,” he said. “George ain’t
hurt. He’s all right.”

9. Tag line in the middle of the quote
Tag line splits one sentence of the quote:
• Put a comma at the end of the first part
(within the quotation marks).
• Put a comma after the tagline and quotation
marks around the rest of the quote (including
the end punctuation).
Example: Well said George we’ll have a big
vegetable garden and a rabbit hutch and
chickens.

10. Example
• “Well,” said George, “we’ll have a big
vegetable garden and a rabbit hutch and
chickens.”

11. Additional Notes:
• Start a new paragraph each time the speaker
changes.
• Sometimes if a dialogue is lengthy, you may
not need a tag line each time a person speaks.
Sometimes the back and forth of a
conversation makes the speaker evident.