Punctuation - Tumblr Posts
Crazy that we're on the punctuation website, where people actually use apostrophes and hyphens and still you didn't put commas in your list
Writing Tips
Punctuating Dialogue
✧
➸ “This is a sentence.”
➸ “This is a sentence with a dialogue tag at the end,” she said.
➸ “This,” he said, “is a sentence split by a dialogue tag.”
➸ “This is a sentence,” she said. “This is a new sentence. New sentences are capitalized.”
➸ “This is a sentence followed by an action.” He stood. “They are separate sentences because he did not speak by standing.”
➸ She said, “Use a comma to introduce dialogue. The quote is capitalized when the dialogue tag is at the beginning.”
➸ “Use a comma when a dialogue tag follows a quote,” he said.
“Unless there is a question mark?” she asked.
“Or an exclamation point!” he answered. “The dialogue tag still remains uncapitalized because it’s not truly the end of the sentence.”
➸ “Periods and commas should be inside closing quotations.”
➸ “Hey!” she shouted, “Sometimes exclamation points are inside quotations.”
However, if it’s not dialogue exclamation points can also be “outside”!
➸ “Does this apply to question marks too?” he asked.
If it’s not dialogue, can question marks be “outside”? (Yes, they can.)
➸ “This applies to dashes too. Inside quotations dashes typically express—“
“Interruption” — but there are situations dashes may be outside.
➸ “You’ll notice that exclamation marks, question marks, and dashes do not have a comma after them. Ellipses don’t have a comma after them either…” she said.
➸ “My teacher said, ‘Use single quotation marks when quoting within dialogue.’”
➸ “Use paragraph breaks to indicate a new speaker,” he said.
“The readers will know it’s someone else speaking.”
➸ “If it’s the same speaker but different paragraph, keep the closing quotation off.
“This shows it’s the same character continuing to speak.”
Writing Tips
Punctuating Dialogue
✧
➸ “This is a sentence.”
➸ “This is a sentence with a dialogue tag at the end,” she said.
➸ “This,” he said, “is a sentence split by a dialogue tag.”
➸ “This is a sentence,” she said. “This is a new sentence. New sentences are capitalized.”
➸ “This is a sentence followed by an action.” He stood. “They are separate sentences because he did not speak by standing.”
➸ She said, “Use a comma to introduce dialogue. The quote is capitalized when the dialogue tag is at the beginning.”
➸ “Use a comma when a dialogue tag follows a quote,” he said.
“Unless there is a question mark?” she asked.
“Or an exclamation point!” he answered. “The dialogue tag still remains uncapitalized because it’s not truly the end of the sentence.”
➸ “Periods and commas should be inside closing quotations.”
➸ “Hey!” she shouted, “Sometimes exclamation points are inside quotations.”
However, if it’s not dialogue exclamation points can also be “outside”!
➸ “Does this apply to question marks too?” he asked.
If it’s not dialogue, can question marks be “outside”? (Yes, they can.)
➸ “This applies to dashes too. Inside quotations dashes typically express—“
“Interruption” — but there are situations dashes may be outside.
➸ “You’ll notice that exclamation marks, question marks, and dashes do not have a comma after them. Ellipses don’t have a comma after them either…” she said.
➸ “My teacher said, ‘Use single quotation marks when quoting within dialogue.’”
➸ “Use paragraph breaks to indicate a new speaker,” he said.
“The readers will know it’s someone else speaking.”
➸ “If it’s the same speaker but different paragraph, keep the closing quotation off.
“This shows it’s the same character continuing to speak.”
Why punctuation is important I saw a "bed, wed, behead" post with TFP Megatron without a comma between "bed" and "wed". A Freudian slip occurred, and my train of thoughts was unstoppable as usual. Megatron, the bed-wetter? Well, weird, I've never considered. But, eh, logical.
I recalled a German movie about Hitler hiring a Jewish man to help him improve his eloquence. And there Hitler was portrayed as a nervous addict pissing his bed. It is this type of comedy that makes you wonder what the bloody hell you are watching and WHY, and makes you wanna put your brain in a dishwasher. But now I think maybe it's a legit way to portray a dictator?
Not to mention that being high can make your body betray you in the lowest ways. So, Dark Energon can have an unforeseen side effect.
And all that because of one missed comma.
(I'm not sure if I should tag this as kinky stuff. At this point, it's not kinky, but maybe we could explore this side in this blog later.)
[This post is sponsored by Minimus Ambus, your favorite grammar Na… oh no, not now.]
Spent yet another day arguing over:
๑ Semicolons ๑ Line spacing ๑ Letter case
Why would I ever need a Transformer self-insert OC. I'm literally poor man's Ultra Magnus (or, more size accurately, Minimus Ambus). I could write a fanfic on him furiously fucking a list. Same for Tarn.
Spent my working hours figuring out quotation marks in types of texts unknown to humanity old moss-grown language guidebooks unfit for shit I have to deal with, god help me.
Pros: plot bunny. I've come across at least two fics with Megatron writing erotic poetry. So, this, but he's intended to publish his shit (anonymously) and goes for the only person who can provide decent editorial work. As we know from the canon, Minimus has a soft spot for poetry. But oh boy, he's NOT ready for Megs' trashy and obscene lyrics.
(Editing horny content truly sucks ass, I'm in hell each time I do a post for this blog. Lust is the sin I'm punished for.)
I’m from Germany, we put commas everywhere.
But I’m writing in English; so I spend 20% of my writing time just staring at a page, debating whether there should be a comma (or other kind of punctuation) or not.
my writing: please, please i’m begging just use normal punctuation for once in your terrible writing
me: haha time for another
comma
I made a couple new leather notebook covers. The first one I made was a bit overly fancy, with a bunch of stitch-work on the covers, so these are more straightforward. I'm using Moleskine notebooks for the insides because they're nice, and they're freely available.
The Celtic knot pattern is cut all the way through to expose the cardstock of the blank journal inside. It's up for sale over on my Etsy shop.
The interrobang is engraved into the surface of the leather. This one I made just for myself. (The interrobang is definitely my favorite punctuation mark.) As photographed the notebook has been in and out of my pocket and backpack for a couple weeks. So it's holding up pretty nicely.
I'm liking this concept, and would like to make more if it looks like they'll sell. If people have any requests for different types of patterns to do on these, let me know!
Title (optional)
A single sentence “hook” with the topic clearly stated.
A paragraph of background info. Life history, explanations, a list in series separated by commas - with liberal use of hyphens and semicolons. Occasional five-dollar vernacular, followed by “ain’t” or “y’all.”
Sudden forward-shift to today. Application of this topic; why it applies to me. More fancy punctuation and self-reflection. Emphasis on key points. A single tyop edited several hours, maybe days later.
The main point, on a line by itself.
Mini-rant about bad applications of the topic. Edge cases and exceptions. (Exceptions to the exception.) Subordinating conjunction, observation about the topic. A generalized claim.
Concluding sentence (sometimes a joke).
That’s it. That’s all. Everyone can go write interesting posts now.
I think the hardest part of writing something isn't figuring out exactly WHAT to write, but how to write it in a different way from how I text. You're telling me my character is excited and I cant !!!! Confused and alarmed but they don't ?!? Nonstandard punctuation has killed dialogic adjectives and I don't know if I have the strength to bring them back
“This is your daily, friendly reminder to use commas instead of periods during the dialogue of your story,” she said with a smile.
Exclamation points, as indicated above, can add a lot of spice to a narrative! That said, I do believe they should be used sparingly. If you use too many exclamation points, they lose their value and therefore have less of an effect. There are other ways to convey emphasis, excitement, and intensity! Italics, paragraph breaks, choppy punctuation, sentence fragments, and more!
Also, don't forget your narrative voice! Voice is important to consider when adding punctuation. If your narrator's tone does not lend itself to exclamation points, don't use them! Every narrator's voice is going to be a bit different and every author's writing style is going to be different. Figure out if exclamation points further your narrative goals, and if they do, use them! If they don't, consider alternatives! You have options!
No middle sliders, but if you have an "it depends", put it in the tags or reblogs!
googledocs you are getting awfully uppity for something that can’t differentiate between “its” and “it’s” correctly
Apparently a lot of people get dialogue punctuation wrong despite having an otherwise solid grasp of grammar, possibly because they’re used to writing essays rather than prose. I don’t wanna be the asshole who complains about writing errors and then doesn’t offer to help, so here are the basics summarized as simply as I could manage on my phone (“dialogue tag” just refers to phrases like “he said,” “she whispered,” “they asked”):
“For most dialogue, use a comma after the sentence and don’t capitalize the next word after the quotation mark,” she said.
“But what if you’re using a question mark rather than a period?” they asked.
“When using a dialogue tag, you never capitalize the word after the quotation mark unless it’s a proper noun!” she snapped.
“When breaking up a single sentence with a dialogue tag,” she said, “use commas.”
“This is a single sentence,” she said. “Now, this is a second stand-alone sentence, so there’s no comma after ‘she said.’”
“There’s no dialogue tag after this sentence, so end it with a period rather than a comma.” She frowned, suddenly concerned that the entire post was as unasked for as it was sanctimonious.
A comma splice walks into a bar, it has a drink and then leaves.
A question mark walks into a bar?
Two quotation marks “Walk into” a bar.
A participle and an infinitive walk into a bar, drinking to drink.
The bar was walked into by a passive voice.
Three intransitive verbs walk into a bar. They sit. They drink. They leave.