Quoting Your Characters

My amazing friend, Elizabeth is editing my book.  I say amazing because she has suggested some sentence rewrites and caught incorrect punctuation, but more importantly, she found a major blooper in my story - the grammar and punctuation with quotations.  Some are right, some are wrong, and some have correct and incorrect properties.  I guess this shows just how involved an author can get in his/her own book, missing errors that stand out like a cow in a pasture of sheep.

It is critical to use correct grammar and punctuation so the reader can understand the story and can read without interruptions.  It is frustrating to read, re-read, and sometimes read again a sentence that makes no sense. 

Thank you, thank you, thank you, Elizabeth! 

I am elated that she is helping me find these problems.  I can't tell you how many times I've been over my book, not seeing these.  My Word auto correct came up with 'fragment' on many, making no sense to me until Elizabeth pointed out the problem.  Why couldn't Word explain it better?

Thus, I figured it would be good to review quotations with proper grammar and punctuation.  There are many wonderful sources on the internet.  Later, I will list Elizabeth's favorite sources too.

Quotation marks as used in the U.S.A., "   ", are  to set off quoted or spoken language and titles that do not normally stand by themselves.  We will only look at spoken language by our characters. 

I have searched the web for correct examples.  Here they are:

I said, "Well."

"Well," I said. 

I cried, "Go!"  

Stop saying "like"!

The first question on the quiz was "Who wrote 'The Raven'?" 

I can never pronounce twelfths.  OR  I can never pronounce "twelfths." 

 "Diane," Eric asked, "have you finished reading that book yet?"

"Oh, my God!" she exclaimed. "You're never going to believe this!" 

 (Indirect):   The professor said that I will lose ten points if I turn the project in late. 

(Direct):   The professor said, "You will lose ten points if you turn the project in late." He answered yes.  OR He answered, "Yes."  although the first is the preferred.

 Mr. Johnson, who was working in his field that morning, said, "The alien spaceship appeared right before my own two eyes."

"Mary is trying hard in school this semester," her father said. 

Use quotations marks for:

• Titles of short or minor works
• Songs
• Short Stories
• Essays
• Short Poems
• One Act Plays
• Other literary works shorter than a three act play or complete book
• Titles of sections from longer works
• Chapters in books
• Articles in newspapers, magazines, or journals
• Episodes of television and radio series

 Underlining or italics are used for the titles of long pieces or works that contain smaller sections.


Use quotation marks with these titles:

• Songs
• Short stories
• Short poems
• One-act plays
• Essays
• Chapters in books
• Articles in newspapers
• Magazine articles
• Journal articles
• Periodicals
• Television or radio episodes
• Short literary works
• Theses
• Dissertations
• Unpublished lectures, speeches and papers
• Manuscripts
• Reports
• Official titles of art exhibits 

What about if your character is thinking?

1. Thought written in first person present, italicized, tagged
Mary closed her eyes and lifted her face to the sun. This summer has been so perfect, she thought. I don't want it ever to end.
2. Thought written in first person present, italicized, not tagged
Mary closed her eyes and lifted her face to the sun. This summer has been so perfect. I don't want it ever to end.
3. Thought written in first person present, not italicized, tagged
Mary closed her eyes and lifted her face to the sun. This summer has been so perfect, she thought. I don't want it ever to end.
4. Thought written in first person present, not italicized, not tagged
Mary closed her eyes and lifted her face to the sun. This summer has been so perfect. I don't want it ever to end.
5. Thought written in third person past, not italicized, tagged
Mary closed her eyes and lifted her face to the sun. This summer had been so perfect, she thought. She didn't want it ever to end.
6. Thought written in third person past, not italicized, not tagged
Mary closed her eyes and lifted her face to the sun. This summer had been so perfect. She didn't want it ever to end.

So which of these possibilities are correct and which are incorrect?
You will find examples of all of the above in published fiction, so in a sense it is a matter of personal choice. The only hard and fast rule that exists is to be consistent throughout.
Whatever method of presenting internal monologue that you use in the first chapter - first person present and italicized text, for example - you should still be using it in the final chapter.
Readers quickly grow accustomed to whatever conventions you have decided to use, and not sticking to those conventions consistently throughout will only confuse your audience.

  Never use quotation marks around a character's thoughts. The reader will assume the words are being said out loud, and will then have to make an awkward mental shift when they see a "he thought" interior monologue tag rather than a "he said" dialogue tag at the end.

 We can also dispense with using italicized text when the thought is translated into third person past tense. The only point of italics is to make a different voice and tense stand out from the regular voice and tense being used. When both the thought and the text surrounding it are in the same voice and tense there is no need for italics.


I have made a copy of this to refer to so I don't head off in a different direction again.

If you are interested in using Elizabeth's services, here is her information.  I highly recommend her.

Elizabeth uses The Elements of Style, The Associated Press Stylebook, & The Chicago Manual of Style.  She charges $25 an hour whether it is writing or editing/proofreading.

Here is her website:  http://desertgirlmedia.com/  

I highly recommend her if you want your finished work to be professional.

LHR and PAWS for Success