"can anyone help?" He asked.

jerry phoenix · Oct 13, 2009

can anyone help. i dont know how to punctuate this sentance.

"Can anyone help?" he asked.
"Can anyone help?" He asked.
"Can anyone help," he asked?

which, if any, of these is correct?

thanks for your help, he said.

JP

Fredster · Oct 13, 2009

The first is correct, the others are not.

raburrell · Oct 13, 2009

"Can anyone help?" he asked.

This one.

dpaterso · Oct 13, 2009

Indeed, 1st choice is correct.

Same sentence continues after the closing quote, so "He" in #2 should be lowercase.

The question is inside the quotes, so the ? in #3 is in the wrong place.

-Derek

kct webber · Oct 13, 2009

Yup. Number one is correct. Your others are incorrect.

These are all correct:

"You can help me," he said.
"Can you help me?" he asked.
"Help me!" he said.

jerry phoenix · Oct 13, 2009

thanks very much, guys.

i dont know if i hate spellcheck more than it hates me. gotta love having a bunch of writers on the end of an internet conection though.

reps.

JP

Jamesaritchie · Oct 13, 2009

The question mark means "He asked," so you can just write "Can anyone help?"

Libbie · Oct 13, 2009

Fredster said:
The first is correct, the others are not.

Right, although there are other options that may feel less awkward to you. For example:

The man dropped the bloody knife, looking around the room at the terrified crowd. "Can anyone help?"

If you keep the dialogue in the same line as the action, it's clear that the man who dropped the knife is the one speaking, so there's no need for a dialogue tag.

kct webber · Oct 13, 2009

jerry phoenix said:
thanks very much, guys.

i dont know if i hate spellcheck more than it hates me. gotta love having a bunch of writers on the end of an internet conection though.

A good rule to go by when discussing spell check--or anything else to do with cool gadgets and programs: Never trust a machine to write your story for you.

Really... Spell check in most word processors is meant for office memos and academic writing. Not fiction. Don't let have too much of a say. Lots of people just turn off the checky things. I don't. Sometimes it's right, and it doesn't really bother me when it's not, so I leave it on, but lots of people just disable the thing.

Libbie · Oct 13, 2009

Disable it, or learn how to ignore the little lines. I've gone through my ms and added all the wonky Egyptian names, places, and words to spell check so it will only alert me if I've transposed letters (that happens a lot with certain letter combinations.) That way, if it's not giving me spellcheck lines on an Egyptian word, I just ignore it.

kct webber · Oct 13, 2009

I add my weird made-up, or foreign words to my dictionary, so it doesn't flag them.

Kathleen42 · Oct 13, 2009

Jamesaritchie said:
The question mark means "He asked," so you can just write "Can anyone help?"

True, though he may want to include it for pacing or rhythm. I occasionally tag questions with "asked".

DVGuru · Oct 13, 2009

If I definitely needed the tag, I would write "Can anyone help?" he said. Using "asked" after a question mark seems redundant to me.

Kathleen42 · Oct 13, 2009

DVGuru said:
If I definitely needed the tag, I would write "Can anyone help?" he said. Using "asked" after a question mark seems redundant to me.

Personal preference but I hate seeing said after a question mark. To me, it draws my attention straight to the tag when the whole point of "said" is that it's so unobtrusive.

I realize, however, that that is a personal preference.

scarletpeaches · Oct 13, 2009

I hate seeing any tags after a question. The ? makes that obvious and if there's any ambiguity over who's speaking, use action.

Telstar · Oct 13, 2009

Hmmm I have seen capital letters after full stop, exclamation and question mark as well.

scarletpeaches · Oct 13, 2009

Yes, because they were beginning another thought, not continuing the previous sentence.

Kathleen42 · Oct 13, 2009

Telstar said:
Hmmm I have seen capital letters after full stop, exclamation and question mark as well.

If it's a beat, it will start with a capital.

Example: "Can anyone help?" His eyes swept over the crowd.

If it's a tag, it should not start with a capital letter with the exception of a proper name or a deity.

Jamesaritchie · Oct 13, 2009

Kathleen42 said:
True, though he may want to include it for pacing or rhythm. I occasionally tag questions with "asked".

It's partly a personal peeve, but it always jars me when I see "He asked" after a question mark, especially when the speaker doesn't continue. I think you may find rhythm and pacing when such things are used in the middle diaologue, but not when they're used at the end.

But whenever it's used, I always read it as "Can anyone help me, he asked." He asked

bearilou · Oct 13, 2009

scarletpeaches said:
Yes, because they were beginning another thought, not continuing the previous sentence.

*stares at your avatar*

I'm sorry, what was the question?

The Lonely One · Oct 13, 2009

jerry phoenix said:
can anyone help. i dont know how to punctuate this sentance.

"Can anyone help?" he asked.
"Can anyone help?" He asked.
"Can anyone help," he asked?

which, if any, of these is correct?

thanks for your help, he said.

JP

"Can anyone help?" he asked.

Also,

"Can anyone help," he asked.

"Can anyone help?" he said.

"Can anyone help," he said.

Can anyone help? he asked.

He asked, Could anyone help?

etc.

Steam&Ink · Oct 13, 2009

kct webber said:
Really... Spell check in most word processors is meant for office memos and academic writing. Not fiction.

I do plenty of academic writing on my PC, and I can assure you that spell check is a moron in that sphere too! I've lost count of the number of real words I've had to "Add to Dictionary". It seems to have the vaocabulary of an average twelve-year-old.

I do, however, appreciate that the grammar-check points out all my passive sentence structures. That's the one thing stopping me from disabling the damn thing.

scarletpeaches · Oct 13, 2009

bearilou said:
*stares at your avatar*

I'm sorry, what was the question?

I'm getting that a lot lately. I'd change it so I didn't distract y'all every time I post, but tt42 would kill me, so...JRM stays.

"can anyone help?" He asked.

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