Grammar Guru's Gather - Dumb questions about quotations

rosewood said:

"Good grief," Mike said to the author, "your grammar sucks."

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That's fine.

"Good grief." Mike said to the author. "Your grammar sucks."

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That's needlessly fragmented, unnatural.

"Good grief," Mike said to the author. "Your grammar sucks."

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That's fine too.

If I subsituted "He" for "Mike" when would I capitalize the word "He"?

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At the start of a sentence. "Good grief," Mike said. He threw the book down. "Your grammar sucks."

"Lucy, I am appalled by your writing skills." Mack proclaimed as he dusted off his boots.

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I'd join these sentences together, changing the period after "skills" to a comma, even though the two actions are unrelated.

"I like your boots, Mack." Lucy flips through the grammar book that Mack has just given to her.

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That's fine.

"I like your boots, Mack."
Lucy flips through the grammar book that Mack has just given to her.

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There's no need to start a new paragraph.

If you're having problems with basic construction like this, I'd advise you to read more books. No, really. Sounds dreadfully patronizing, but it's true. Study how published authors write their sentences, and the answers will come.

PS - Gurus plural, not Guru's possessive.

-Derek

Another way to look at it: dialogue tags are part of the same sentence as the dialogue they describe, therefore the tags are linked to the dialogue via commas.

Just some other thoughts (in which I will say what I've said before -- Derek has it):

"Good grief" and "Your grammar sucks" are separate clauses. One, the first, is an exclaimation. The quote person is reacting to the grammar and exclaiming his/her disdain of it. So, your construction would be:

"Good grief!" Mike said to the author. "Your grammar sucks."

And, of course, Derek is right about Lucy's paragraph split. It's all part of one thought and can run in the same graf.

Finally, reinforcing what Derek said: a good review of clauses, punctuation and sentence construction could be helpful for you. Every word matters. So do the sentences they're contained within.

If you put a tag inside an incomplete sentence, use commas:


"That is," he said, breathing hard, "very urgent."

Also, if the dialogue is a complete sentence can it be shown like this:

"Lucy, I am appalled by your writing skills." Mack proclaimed as he dusted off his boots.

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No, dialogue tags are punctuated by comma, not period:

"Lucy, I'm appalled by your writing skills," Mac said.

The only exception is when the sentence ends with question mark, exclamation, ellipses or dashes:

"Lucy, are you appalled?" Mac said.

rosewood said:

When you have dialogue that is not a complete sentences, which is correct:

"Good grief," Mike said to the author, "your grammar sucks."

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Correct.

This is the only one of your examples where the internal structure of the dialog matters. You can use the two commas and the lower case "y" ONLY when the tag--Mike said to the author--is inserted in the middle of a dialog sentence. If you wrote the dialog alone, without any tag, it would be:

"Good grief, your grammar sucks."

rosewood said:

or

"Good grief." Mike said to the author. "Your grammar sucks."

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No. The tag--Mike said to the author--isn't a complete sentence. Some dialog, without regard to its internal content, is needed to complete that sentence.

However, the period would be correct with a different verb to change the tag to an action:

"Good grief." Mike frowned at the author. "Your grammar sucks."

rosewood said:

or

"Good grief," Mike said to the author. "Your grammar sucks."

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Also correct.

Unlike the first example, here you're treating the dialog as two separate utterances, whether or not those utterances happen to be complete sentences. If you wrote this dialog alone, without the tag, it would be:

"Good grief. Your grammar sucks."

rosewood said:

If I subsituted "He" for "Mike" when would I capitalize the word "He"?

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In the first and third examples above, you would leave "he" lowercase.

In my altered version of the second example, "He" would be capitalized.

rosewood said:

Also, if the dialogue is a complete sentence can it be shown like this:

"Lucy, I am appalled by your writing skills." Mack proclaimed as he dusted off his boots.

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No. The completeness of the dialog sentence itself is irrelevant. Mack proclaimed as he dusted off his boots isn't a complete sentence. That's why you need the comma instead of the period. The dialog and tag together form a sentence.

rosewood said:

Also, when an action is preformed by the speaker after he/she says something, is the action placed on a new line or beside the dialogue? Which is correct:

"I like your boots, Mack." Lucy flips through the grammar book that Mack has just given to her.

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Yes.

The reverse is correct, too:

Lucy flips through the grammar book that Mack has just given to her. "I like your boots, Mack."

rosewood said:

or

"I like your boots, Mack."
Lucy flips through the grammar book that Mack has just given to her.

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No, in most cases. Almost all cases.

A significant line of dialog can be left standing alone for emphasis. However, that's one of those devices that gets very tedious very fast when overworked. Also, you would have to be very careful to signal who's speaking next, because it violates the expected pattern.

rosewood said:

Ok, these are questions about dialogue. When you have dialogue that is not a complete sentences, which is correct:

"Good grief," Mike said to the author, "your grammar sucks."

or

"Good grief." Mike said to the author. "Your grammar sucks."

or

"Good grief," Mike said to the author. "Your grammar sucks."

If I subsituted "He" for "Mike" when would I capitalize the word "He"?

Also, if the dialogue is a complete sentence can it be shown like this:

"Lucy, I am appalled by your writing skills." Mack proclaimed as he dusted off his boots.

Also, when an action is preformed by the speaker after he/she says something, is the action placed on a new line or beside the dialogue? Which is correct:

"I like your boots, Mack." Lucy flips through the grammar book that Mack has just given to her.

or

"I like your boots, Mack."
Lucy flips through the grammar book that Mack has just given to her.

Please help! This is driving me nuts!

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One thing (could just be me):

"Good grief," Mike said to the author. "Your grammar sucks."

sounds slightly different than

"Good grief," Mike said to the author, "your grammar sucks."

The first makes "Your grammar sucks" its own sentence. It's stressed differently, at least in my ears.

The second is basically the same as "Good grief, your grammar sucks" if you take out the tag. Thus, "Good grief" gets most of the emphasis while "your grammar sucks" gets less.

Maybe it's just the way I hear it. But hey, I'm a reader, too .

The example that reads "Good grief." Mike said to the author. "Your grammar sucks." is incorrect. "Mike said to the author" isn't a complete sentence, and it doesn't sound anywhere near brilliant enough for you to get away with it in this case (no offense--it'd be rare for me to forgive that on the page no matter who's writing it).

Just think about if tags were their own sentences, sans words to precede them--wouldn't make any sense. That's why they're only part of a sentence (hence the comma between tag and speech).