Dialog Question

I'd use the second one.

I would use the second. And I would spell it "walkie-talkie."

Potluck said:

Thanks.

I'm having a though time with walkieee talkieee. I can't make up my mind. You have to leave something for the editor to do. LOL

Oh, should I have quoted or capitalized talk in that sentence?

...pressed the "talk" button.

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You probably could italicize it, but I think the context is perfectly clear without.

Here's a suggestion when you run into alternate spellings: first, verify that both are used by looking them up in a dictionary. If they are both in use, hold a Google-off to see which is more common: in this case, first search "walky talky" (within quotes), and then "walkie talkie." Unless you have a very specific reason for using the other, I would go with the more common of the two.

Leave as little for the editor to do as possible. Truly.

It seems to me not that you're having problems with how the Americans do it but with proper punctuation of dialogue in general. Which is common, and learn-able, so listen up.

Travis crumpled the map into his hip pocket, pulled the walky-talky off of his belt and pressed the talk button. “It’s not even here!” This needs a period after the word button not to be American but because that's the end of the sentence. Pressing the talk button is not a synonym for said and therefore can't be treated as a dialogue tag/attribute.

Travis crumpled the map into his hip pocket, pulled the walky-talky off of his belt and shouted, “It’s not even here!” Note the comma, because shouted is an appropriate dialogue tag.

The same thing goes for your second question. Travis pressed the button to talk, but Kaylin leaned in. “I bet there’s no such a thing as GPS treasure hunting.” You'd use a period after leaned in because leaning in isn't a synonym for said and can't be a dialogue tag.

Travis pressed the button to talk, but Kaylin muttered, “I bet there’s no such a thing as GPS treasure hunting.” This time a comma is needed, because muttered is a dialogue tag.

Lots of people have trouble with this. They have characters smile, laugh, or nod lines of dialogue all the time. To self-test, could the "tag" word or phrase (which makes the comma separating it from the dialogue correct) be replaced with said and still make sense? If it can, comma. If it can't, period.

Maryn, hoping that made sense

Potluck said:

While I have you here, can you tell me if you would ever use a comma before the dialog?

For example:

Travis pressed the button to talk, but Kaylin leaned in, period “I bet there’s no such a thing as GPS treasure hunting.”

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I would use a period after a bit of action as long as you don't include a dialogue tag. You would need a comma if you used one: Travis pressed the button to talk, but Kaylin leaned in and said, "I bet there's no such thing as GPS treasure hunting." Note: the dialogue tag is unnecessary in that particular example--I was just adding it for illustration.

EDIT: Cross-posted with Maryn, who said it very well indeed.

Potluck said:

I did google it but I couldn't determine which was correct. I actually prefer Walkie-Talkie. Thanks.

I'll try to give them very little to do. I'll make you guys do all the work. LOL I can't believe how much work each sentence is. I hope this gets easier or becomes second nature to be correct. Better, Faster, More.

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It does get easier with practice. Get yourself a good grammar book (and I think there's already a thread going with recommendations) and keep it next to the computer.

As far as Google goes, it won't tell you which is correct--you still need the dictionary for that (and the one I consulted does give walky-talky as a variant of walkie-talkie). Google will tell you which of the two is more common, and in this case performs splendidly: walkie-talkie, over 4.4 million hits; walky-talky, 171,000.