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Guidelines for writing Poems, Stories and Tales

Punctuating narration ?

Asked by: Brandon Starr

How do you punctuate narration?

8 Essential Rules for Punctuating Dialogue – article

  1. Use a comma to introduce text. …
  2. Use a comma when a dialogue tag follows a quote. …
  3. Periods and commas fall within closing quotations. …
  4. Question marks, exclamation points, and dashes fall inside or outside closing quotations. …
  5. Use single quotes when using quotes within dialogue.

How do you punctuate indirect speech?

When indirect speech is used, the writer will share the main points of what someone has said without writing exactly what they said in full. No speech punctuation (like inverted commas) is used for indirect speech.

How do you punctuate dialogue in a short story?

How to Format Dialogue in a Story

  1. Use Quotation Marks to Indicate Spoken Word. …
  2. Dialogue Tags Stay Outside the Quotation Marks. …
  3. Use a Separate Sentence for Actions That Happen Before or After the Dialogue. …
  4. Use Single Quotes When Quoting Something Within the Dialogue. …
  5. Use a New Paragraph to Indicate a New Speaker.

What are 4 types of punctuation?

We can break down the punctuation marks into five categories, as follows:

  • Sentence endings: period, question mark, exclamation point.
  • Comma, colon, and semicolon.
  • Dash and hyphen.
  • Brackets, braces, and parentheses.
  • Apostrophe, quotation marks, and ellipsis.


What are the 5 rules of direct speech?

Speech is opened with quotation marks, speech marks or inverted commas. Each line of speech will start with a capital letter. A reporting clause is used at the end of the sentence. A full stop is placed at the end of the reporting clause.

Do you put comma after speech marks?

If the direct speech is at the beginning of the sentence, put the comma before the final quotation mark. (Don’t use a full stop here.) Example: “I was in London last year,” she said. Don’t use a comma after direct speech if the direct speech ends with a question mark or exclamation mark.

What is punctuation example?

In simple terms, punctuation marks are a symbol to create and support meaning within a sentence or to break it up. Examples of different punctuation marks include: full stops (.), commas (,), question marks (?), exclamation marks (!), colons (:), semi-colons (;), apostrophes (‘) and speech marks (“,”).

Does a semicolon mean or?

This is part of the same rule; the conjunction in question is “but” instead of “and.” To summarize, a semicolon links up two related ideas by narrowing the gap between the ideas of two separate sentences or by replacing a conjunction between two related ideas.

How do you write a punctuation sentence?

Punctuation fills our writing with silent intonation. We pause, stop, emphasize, or question using a comma, a period, an exclamation point or a question mark. Correct punctuation adds clarity and precision to writing; it allows the writer to stop, pause, or give emphasis to certain parts of the sentence.

What is the easiest way to learn punctuation?


The comma the semicolon. And the colon. These are called pauses. Because they are used to tell the reader to stop briefly for a moment and then continue reading let's start with the comma.



How do you explain punctuation to a child?

Periods are the most common way to end a sentence because they are used to end any sentence that isn't a question or an exclamation an exclamation will end with an exclamation point exclamation.

What are examples of conjunctions?

Examples of Conjunctions

  • I tried to hit the nail but hit my thumb instead.
  • I have two goldfish and a cat.
  • I’d like a bike for commuting to work.
  • You can have peach ice cream or a brownie sundae.
  • Neither the black dress northe gray one looks right on me.
  • My dad always worked hard so we could afford the things we wanted.

What are the 10 examples of conjunctions?

Subordinating Conjunctions

1. Because She usually eats at home, because she likes cooking.
7. Therefore She came first. Therefore she got a good seat.
8. Provided They can listen to music provided they disturb nobody.
9. Unless You don’t need to go unless you want to.
10. Since Since I see you, I am better.

What are the 3 main conjunctions?

There are three basic types of conjunctions: coordinating, subordinating, and correlative.

What are the 7 conjunctions?

English has seven coordinating conjunctions—for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so—which you can remember using the mnemonic FANBOYS: For indicates causation: “We left a day early, for the weather was not as clement as we had anticipated.”



What are 20 examples of conjunctions?

1. Sentences with conjunctions and connecting words

Conjunction Sentence
as As I came she was leaving.
As you couldn’t see the film, we’ll tell you something about it.
because She goes to the tennis club because she likes to play tennis.
but He reads magazines, but he doesn’t like to read books.

What are the 5 subordinating conjunctions?

Time, concession, comparison, cause, condition, and place are the types of subordinating conjunctions, categorized by meaning.

What are all the subordinate conjunctions?

Subordinating conjunctions are conjunctions that are used at the beginning of subordinate clauses. Some examples of these conjunctions are; although, after, before, because, how, if, once, since, so that, until, unless, when etc.

What are the 12 subordinating conjunctions?

There are many subordinating conjunctions but the most common are: after, although, as, as if, because, before, how, if, since, than, though, unless, until, when, where and while.

Is whoever a subordinating conjunction?

The most common subordinate conjunctions in the English language include: than, rather than, whether, as much as, whereas, that, whatever, which, whichever, after, as soon as, as long as, before, by the time, now that, once, since, till, until, when, whenever, while, though, although, even though, who, whoever, whom, …



Do you put commas before subordinating conjunctions?

Subordinating conjunctions that fall in the middle of a sentence are generally not preceded by a comma. This is the opposite of what is done with coordinating conjunctions, or words that join two independent clauses (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, and sometimes so).

What are the 8 rules for commas?

Commas (Eight Basic Uses)

  • Use a comma to separate independent clauses. …
  • Use a comma after an introductory clause or phrase. …
  • Use a comma between all items in a series. …
  • Use commas to set off nonrestrictive clauses. …
  • Use a comma to set off appositives. …
  • Use a comma to indicate direct address. …
  • Use commas to set off direct quotations.

Do we need comma before because?

Because is a subordinating conjunction, which means that it connects a subordinate clause to an independent clause; good style dictates that there should be no comma between these two clauses. An exception can and should be made when the lack of a comma would cause ambiguity.