The messier details of dialogue punctuation and capitalization annoy me.
An Ask.com article clears up some of the fog with these six rules:
- Use a comma between the dialogue and the tag line
- Periods and commas go inside the quotation marks in American writing
- When a tag line interrupts a sentence, it should be set off by commas.
- To signal a quotation within a quotation, use single quotes
- For interior dialogue, italics are appropriate, just be consistent.
- If a quotation spills out over more than one paragraph, don't use end quotes at the close of the first paragraph. Use them only when a character is done speaking.
Most of them are obvious, but these rules and the accompanying rules of capitalization make writing dialogue less of a headache.
