using a comma or period with quotation marks?

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mesh138

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This seems like a topic I've heard on here before, so forgive me if this has been touched on a million times already. Just curious about quotations in dialogue. I looked it up in Elements of Style, but it didn't answer my question- Do you use a period or comma? For example.

"I wanted to," said Jim, "but there wasn't time."

or

"I wanted to," said Jim. "But there wasn't time."
 

Andrew Jameson

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If the words without the interior tag are a single complete sentence, use commas to keep it a single sentence. Thus:

"I wanted to, but there wasn't time."
becomes
"I wanted to," said Jim, "but there wasn't time."

If the words without the interior tag form two sentences, use a period to keep them two sentences. Thus:

"I wanted to. I didn't have enough time."
becomes
"I wanted to," said Jim. "I didn't have enough time."
 

Julie Worth

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It depends on how you want him saying this. If there’s a full stop, use a period, if not, use the comma.

 

Jamesaritchie

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mesh138 said:
This seems like a topic I've heard on here before, so forgive me if this has been touched on a million times already. Just curious about quotations in dialogue. I looked it up in Elements of Style, but it didn't answer my question- Do you use a period or comma? For example.

"I wanted to," said Jim, "but there wasn't time."

or

"I wanted to," said Jim. "But there wasn't time."

It's really pretty simple. If the said Jim separates two sentences, use a period. If it breaks a single sentence into two parts, use a comma.
 
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