This is driving me crazy. . .

I'd write "During the first wave of 'testing'," she said, making the quote signs, "most of the subjects blah blah."

I agree with DeleyanLee.

IMO, the commas are the best way to go, but I'd keep the testing italicized.

Usually, an M-dash suggests an interruption while ellipses suggest trailing off. Does that help?

Meira said:

Please help. How do I punctuate the following?

"During the first wave of testing-" Alina flashed quote marks with her fingers. "-most of the subjects blah blah."

or

"During the first wave of testing. . ." Alina flashed quote marks. ". . . most of the subjects blah blah."

or other

(or should I just drop the interruption?)

Click to expand...

Maybe:

"During the first wave of 'testing,'" Alina said, forming quotation marks with her fingers, "most of the subjects . . . ."

Or maybe:

Miming quotation marks with her fingers for emphasis, Alina said, "During the first wave of 'testing,' most of the subjects . . . ."

--Ken

Meira said:

Please help. How do I punctuate the following?

"During the first wave of testing-" Alina flashed quote marks with her fingers. "-most of the subjects blah blah."

or

"During the first wave of testing. . ." Alina flashed quote marks. ". . . most of the subjects blah blah."

or other

(or should I just drop the interruption?)

Click to expand...

'During the first wave of 'testing',' Allina even threw in some air quotes, 'most of the subjects...'

Fallen said:

'During the first wave of 'testing',' Allina even threw in some air quotes, 'most of the subjects...'

Click to expand...

That assumes that readers know what "air quotes" are.

--Ken

It's driving you crazy because it's unclear and ineffective.

The way you have it at present, the finger quote marks do not apply to the word 'tested'. They apply to the subsequent phrase because normally actions precede any related words. That's also the sequence in which what you have written will be absorbed and pictured by the reader.

I suggest that for clarity you either omit the action of creating finger quotes or rephrase the whole dialogue to make it clear to what the creation of finger quotes refer.

Meira said:

Please help. How do I punctuate the following?

"During the first wave of testing-" Alina flashed quote marks with her fingers. "-most of the subjects blah blah."

or

"During the first wave of testing. . ." Alina flashed quote marks. ". . . most of the subjects blah blah."

or other

(or should I just drop the interruption?)

Click to expand...

A professor used to do a lot of air-quotes. That's how he would do it, visual in parenthesis:

During the first wave of (raises hands to form quote sign) quote--testing--quote (flips fingers again) most of the subjects blah blah.

Note that besides his finger signs, he actually says "quote" to indicate where the quotes are inserted. Also, I think you need both the start and the end. It's up to you on how to express the actions in the parenthesis.

I would drop the interuption.

FWIW, I've not seen a better definition of "personal style" than this thread.

Way cool.

DeleyanLee said:

FWIW, I've not seen a better definition of "personal style" than this thread.

Way cool.

Click to expand...

hah-hah. It's better than seeing 'style' get all 'personal' -- personal and bloody.

Researchguy:

And, doing a quick survey around the hall here on who knows 'air quotes'... *counts, answers questions like 'is like air guitar only without the guitar, dancing, stupi movements' with a 'yes'* the majority I see, do.

But, you're right, it's bad philisophy to say that because the only flamingoes i've seen are pink, ALL flamingoes are therefore pink, we can't take it for granted that everyone knows what 'air' quotes are.

If you decide to change the original, then of course you can do it in various ways.

Derek had it right, though you can keep the original insertion about the quotes without changing the wording.

"During the first wave of testing" — Alina flashed quote marks with her fingers — "most of the subjects blah blah."

The key idea is that this is an interruption for the purpose of an insertion. The em-dash (or the -- double hyphen) is properly placed around the inserted material.