This is a guide for myself to reference, but Iâm leaving it here to help anyone else who needs it. This is some of the more common stuff I have trouble with. This isnât a comprehensive list, but itâs a small start.
âIn speech, punctuation remains inside the quotation marks,â she said.
He added, âIf a speaking dialogue tag (in this case, âaddedâ) comes before the speech, you connect it with a comma and capitalize the first letter.â
She snapped her fingers impatiently. âBut if itâs an action unrelated to the actual act of speaking, end it with a period. Donât connect it with a comma like the above.â
âFor sentences that have dialogue tag shoved in the middle,â he said, ânote the lower case at the second part of this sentence and the comma after the âsaidâ. Itâs because theyâre still a part of the same sentence.â
âIt was just briefly interrupted.â She tucks a lock of hair behind her ear. âThese here are all independent sentences, so they each require a period at the end.â
âBut if the sentence has a dialogue tag coupled with an action in between speaking,â he quipped, leaning forward onto his arms, âa comma is more appropriate.â
âThough, itâs different if the sentences are independent,â she reminded him. He gave her a sheepish look. âThis now begins a new sentence that deserves capitalization and a period before the speech.â
Parentheses in the middle of a sentence (for the most past) does not require any ending punctuation within it.
The ending punctuation of a sentence that has a set of parentheses at the end acts as normal (in other words, it stays outside the parentheses).
(If the parentheses is its own separate sentence, the punctuation remains inside the parentheses.)
When using em dashes in place of parenthesesâin this particular caseâthe comma gets dropped.
When using em dashes in place of parentheses (in the above case), the comma gets dropped.
Having spaces before and after the em dash â like so â is more common seen in newspapers and is commonly accepted in British English.
âBut when you have some speechââhe cracked his neck, breathing a sigh of reliefââlike this, the em dashes are outside the quotation marks.â
âIf youâre using it because someone is getting interrupteââ He dropped to the ground, narrowly missed getting hit with a rubber chicken. âWell, that was rude.â
ââTreat it like a proper sentence, but just with single quotation marks.â Now how does that make sense? Single quotations! This teacher is nuts.â
The lady shrugged. âWell, as teacher says, âBritish style is different from American style.â Just be consistent.â
âSure, âAmericanâ style. Why canât we all just have one universal style?â
âMy pets consists of a very old, but lovable cat; my ridiculously energetic dog; and a zebra.â
If we take out the descriptors, we can use commas: my pets consist of a cat, a dog, and a zebra.
The soldier could run twenty laps easily; however, the soldier was very old.
For two separate clauses that can be sentences by themselves, but probably shouldnât be because this ainât Clifford the Big Red Dog.Â
âDid you know we invited the strippers, JFK and Stalin? Iâm saying it without the Oxford comma.â
âSo that would mean you invited two strippers named JFK and Stalin?â
âYeah. But if I add the comma between the two names and said that I invited the strippers, JFK, and Stalin, it would mean something else entirely.â
Commas after introductory words:
âFinally, weâre getting to the good part; the ending.â
âYou know, itâs not the end.â
âNo, that canât be!â
âGrammar is a hell of a drug.âÂ
