Punctuation in Dialogue

Dialogue needs punctuation in order to be complete. If the speaker is excited, use an exclamation point, a question mark if they’re confused, and always use quotation marks to show where a quotation begins and ends. Learn how to put punctuation in dialogue with our writing worksheets, cool activities, and lots more. If you’re a teacher or parent, we have help for you in the form of lesson plans and articles.

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Grammar Galore

Workbook

Get your fifth grader clued into advanced grammar. She'll get to edit a few improper sentences, work on different parts of speech, and practice using correct punctuation marks.

Worksheet

Punctuation: Jack and the Beanstalk

Worksheet

A written passage without punctuation can be very difficult to read! With this worksheet, your child will punctuate this excerpt.

Workbook

Grammar Practice

Workbook

This workbook gives second graders practice in punctuation, and helps to develop their vocabulary with contractions and compound words.

Lesson Plan

Narrative Writing: Adding Dialogue

Lesson Plan

This lesson challenges young learners to add dialogue to their writing. Students will love using their creativity to write personal narratives.

Worksheet

Bigfoot: Punctuate the Story

Worksheet

Put proper punctuation into practice with this Bigfoot read-along worksheet.

Lesson Plan

Editing for Capitalization and Punctuation

Lesson Plan

Students often understand the basic conventions of writing, but may need support in incorporating these skills into their work. In this lesson, students will review some of the more common capitalization and punctuation errors and apply their editing skills to real writing.

Worksheet

Quotation Marks: Say What?

Worksheet

On this third grade reading and writing worksheet, kids complete each sentence by writing in the missing quotation marks.

Worksheet

Writing Dialogue

Worksheet

This worksheet is a fun-filled way to write dialogue about a familiar party staple: balloons. Your 3rd grader creates the conversations between family members.

Worksheet

Perfect Punctuation: Commas in a Series

Worksheet

Using commas correctly is a tricky skill to learn. Give your child the extra practice she needs with this punctuation worksheet.

Workbook

Reading Skills: Sentences to Stories

Workbook

The reading and writing practice in this workbook will get kids thinking about all the different parts that go into a good story, like vocabulary, structure and sequencing.

Worksheet

Punctuate Me: Quotation Marks & Capitalization

Worksheet

Kids practice using quotation marks correctly and identifying words that should be capitalized in this grammar and punctuation worksheet.

Workbook

Grammar Sense

Workbook

These worksheets will help your student become a better editor and practice correcting grammar. With a challenge for every level of fourth grade, this workbook has something for everyone.

Worksheet

Punctuation: The Lion and the Mouse

Worksheet

If you're looking for some punctuation practice, here's the worksheet for you! Read the fable, and then add in all the missing punctuation marks.

Workbook

Punctuation Practice Makes Perfect

Workbook

Your budding writer will get his fill of periods, commas and quotation marks in this essential workbook, filled with opportunities to practice proper punctuation placement.

Lesson Plan

The Period

Lesson Plan

Familiarize your young scholars with declarative and imperative sentences using this simple English lesson. Students will love learning about periods through a series of sentence-writing exercises.

Workbook

Personal Narrative Writing

Workbook

Personal narrative writing is all about you—the writer! Kids will enjoy writing about themselves, from personal experiences and to feelings and emotions. Plus, they'll learn how to map a story.

Lesson Plan

Punctuating Dialogue

Lesson Plan

Your students will surely exclaim, "This is fun!" in response to this writing lesson. It covers topics that range from dialogue punctuation to sentence types, and will definitely help improve reading comprehension skills.

Worksheet

Punctuation and Capitalization

Worksheet

Assess your student's understanding of grammar with this punctuation and capitalization activity. Students will rewrite sentences that are missing capitalization, quotation marks, and punctuation.

Lesson Plan

Narrative Writing: Vivid Descriptions

Lesson Plan

Challenge your students to make their personal narratives come to life with strong action words, feelings, and thoughts. This lesson will help young learners develop their creativity and writing skills.

Worksheet

Using Quotation Marks

Worksheet

When writing dialogue, it's important to know where to place quotation marks and other punctuation. Get some practice with this passage from The Secret Garden.

Worksheet

Quotation Marks Quiz #2

Worksheet

Got questions about quotations marks? No problem! This worksheet will help your child build his grammar and punctuation skills.

Worksheet

Look Who's Talking

Worksheet

This worksheet is a review of dialogue punctuation. Add quotation marks and commas where they are missing in the sentences about ice cream sundaes.

Workbook

Reading Like a Writer, Writing Like a Reader

Workbook

Reading and writing: You can't have one without the other! Get familiar with every facet of literature in this workbook. It's packed with literary analysis activities.

Workbook

Punctuation in Practice

Workbook

Help your child practice punctuation and capitalization in this workbook. There are several creative ways to review writing offered here which explore the mechanics of writing in different situations.

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Fictional and nonfictional writing will often contain transcriptions of conversations between two or more people or characters. While students can indirectly report these conversations, direct dialogue will have more impact on the reader. Direct dialogue, however, also requires special punctuation to identify it.
The punctuation most commonly associated with dialogue is the quotation mark. Quotations come with their own rules. Only the words that are spoken will appear between the quotation marks.
Dialogue in text most often comes along with a dialogue tag. Dialogue tags feature a noun representing the speaker and a verb like say or yell and attribute the text to the speaker. Where the dialogue tag occurs in the sentence will affect how the rest of the line is punctuated.
Dialogue tag at the end: A comma comes at the end of the quote before the closing quotation mark. The dialogue tag is not capitalized and is followed by a period. Dialogue tag at the beginning: The dialogue tag is capitalized and is followed by a comma. The quotation is also capitalized and will be followed by the ending punctuation inside the quotation marks. Dialogue tag in the middle: The portion of the quote preceding the tag features a comma before the ending quotation mark. The dialog tag is not capitalized and is followed by a comma. The continuation of the quote is not capitalized and is followed by the ending punctuation inside the quotation marks.
Working with the resources provided by Education.com may help your students understand the unique punctuation rules associated with dialogue in text.

Punctuation in Dialogue

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