Punctuate Dialogue

Daphne is writing a story about a wise wizard teaching his students.

 

She writes this:

 

The Wizard explained this spell will help us to find the missing jewels.

 

 

Can you see any punctuation mistakes?

 

Daphne hasn’t used inverted commas, so we can’t easily tell which words are being spoken aloud by the wizard.

 

Let’s help Daphne improve her writing.

 

1. Daphne has used the reporting clause at the start of the sentence. We must put a comma after the reporting clause if it’s used at the beginning of a sentence.

The wizard explained,

 

2. Daphne hasn’t used inverted commas to show which words are being spoken aloud by the wizard. We need to open the inverted commas and use a capital letter for the first word of the speech.

The Wizard explained, “This spell will help us to find the missing jewels

 

3. We usually put a comma, exclamation mark or question mark before closing speech, but when the reporting clause is at the start of the sentence, we can use a full stop if the speaker is saying a statement.

The wizard is making a statement (not a question or exclamation) so we put a full stop before closing the speech.

 

The Wizard explained, “This spell will help us to find the missing jewels.”

 

Now, that looks much better!

 

Using Speech for a Conversation Between two Characters

When we use speech to show two or more characters having a conversation, we must go onto a new line each time a different character starts speaking.

 

Like this:

 

The Wizard explained, “This spell will help us to find the missing jewels.”

“Can you show me how to cast the spell?” asked the student.

The wizard instructed, “Of course. Please watch and listen closely.” 

 

 

When the student started talking, we started writing on a new line.

When the wizard started speaking again after the student, we started writing on a new line.

 

In this conversation, we had two sentences with a reporting clause at the beginning and one sentence with a reporting clause at the end. It’s good to use a mixture of both.

 

Always remember: new speaker, new line.

 

In this activity, you’ll be following these instructions to punctuate speech and conversations correctly.

 

Remember to use more exciting words than said.