Given the Patron of the Arts contest coming up, I thought I'd ask a question to help get our minds ready.
I've been reading lots of current literary fiction (stories in The Strand, McSweeney's, The Southern Review, Michigan Quarterly, etc...), and something has come up that I am honestly curious about.
To those of you who write fiction seriously and routinely publish it and/or at least submit it to publications like those above, how do you punctuate dialogue?
It's pretty vogue to leave off almost all punctuation. Of course I am interested in how you punctuate and if you omit any part or use a dash, etc. But what I'm really more interested in knowing is why you punctuate dialogue the way you do.
Post-modernism has brought about a syntactic freedom that, I feel at least, is best utilized when an artist doesn't simply abandon structure, but rather re-invents it according to their own rules.
So, considering the context I've laid out here, serious writers of fiction: why do you punctuate the way you punctuate?
If it's unexamined impulse, that's valid. That's where I was until recently. My curiosity about this subject is fairly strong.
Also, for those of you judging in the fiction writing contest, care to leave a comment about your expectations on this issue for the contest?
Clark
First, what is the Patron of the Arts contest?
I tend to follow the old school rules in punctuating dialogue. Everything by the book, pun intended. Quotation marks at each end, comma before or after if part of a sentence, and so on. I do have questions about the best way to punctuate dialogue when a character is 'thinking' his dialogue. Here I simply italicize the 'thought'.
I have great confusion concerning quotation marks. Some writers seem to use double inverted commas to indicate dialogue, whilst others use single ones. I never know which is correct.
I think they both are right. Single commas create less cluttering effect, that's all. I see both usage in printed contemporary literature.
I think the distinction lies primarily in the country of influence on the writer. Writers influenced more by British English use the single inverted commas ("quotation marks") and place final punctuation outside the inverted commas.
Writers influenced more by American English use the two-apostrophe quotation marks for direct quotations and place certain punctuation inside the quotation marks and certain punctuation outside.
Also, for quotations that are being quoted by the person who is being quoted (Whew!), the internal quotation uses the opposite marks (double for British English, single for American English style). For example, an American would normally punctuate this way:
"Mark Twain once wrote, 'An Englishman is a person who does things because they have been done before. An American is a person who does things because they haven't been done before.' And I think that's humorous, but not always true," Aficionada said with a grimace.
I think someone from the UK would punctuate the same thing this way:
'Mark Twain once wrote, "An Englishman is a person who does things because they have been done before. An American is a person who does things because they haven't been done before". And I think that's humorous, but not always true', Aficionada said with a grimace.
Until recently, I had always used double quotation marks to indicate dialogue, and placed the punctuation mostly inside. This was how I was taught in English lessons at school, many years ago. However, it is in more recent literature that I have noticed the use of single quotaton marks, and placing the punctuation outside. Having been educated in England, I have a feeling that there must have been a change at some point. Reading English literature from decades ago, or even from a previous century, the use of double quotation marks seems more common, but modern works do tend to use the single. I have therefore started to use single inverted commas, although the double looks and seems right to me. If it doesn't matter which is used, I shall go back to using the double.
Thanks for that perspective!
Do you mind if I ask (so that I can be historically accurate going forward) when you were in school?
This is great! I work for company that does College tutoring internationally online and the whole ' vs. " and s vs. z and , vs no , go round and round between English speaking countries (US,UK, AUS) without us knowing any historical context. It is a lively debate at work, I'm sure you can imagine.
I think punctuation, certainly in England has changed a lot over recent years. In fact in my city of Birmingham, the apostrophe has been removed from street names and signs. For instance, King's Close is now Kings Close, and Saint Phillip's Square is now Saint Phillips Square. The city council gave the reason for their removal as being the lack of understanding that people now have of punctuation. It is a sad day, when the country that gave the world the English language, now cannot seem to understand even the basics.
Spelling has changed over the past few decades as well. Reading Sherlock Holmes, I notice how "connection" was then "connexion" and "show" was then "shew."
Other factors that complicate the matter of punctuation are things like whether one is writing according to AP Style guidelines, writing technical material, or writing something like legal material. In the US (at least in my state, and from what I've ever seen), court documents will have "Fred vs. Mary". If I were writing "general" writing, I'd tend to write out "versus". Some style guidelines really go against my grain (although I can see the reason for them).
Working in International Higher Education, I can tell you Aficionada is 100% right about the ' vs " issue.
In standard grammar (as opposed to whatever people may do with fiction), the double quotation marks are put around things someone actually said. If something is quoted within that (for any of the reasons quotation marks would ordinarily be used), the single form is used.
For example,
I said to Fred, "I don't care if Anne did actually say, 'You're an idiot, Fred.' What Anne said to you is not my concern."
(For some reason that single-quote mark before the "Y" looks like a double one to me, but it isn't. It's a single.)
Yes, this is how I was taught to use the double quotation mark, but every book I read, seems to vary its use, and it has started to become confusing. However, as your example looks right to me, I shall certainly go back to that use.
For more information on the HubPatron of the Arts contest, here's the post from the blog:
http://hubpages.com/static/hubpatron_of_the_arts.php
Like most published authors, I punctuate dialogue conventionally.
As a retired English teacher, I'm pretty "old School" - unless I'm going for some Joyce-like effect.
by Kyler J Falk 2 years ago
I've come to notice that there is a stark unspoken conflict between authors and editors alike as it concerns the use of single quotes in place of regular quotations. I was always taught that single quotes are never to be used outside of a quotation inside of a quotation, but I also see the inverse...
by Poppy 5 years ago
I currently have 73 articles on LevelSkip. Recently, the editor has been adding quotation marks to the video game title before moving it to the niche site (sometimes to movie titles on ReelRundown as well). The thing is, if you actually go on LevelSkip, you'll see plenty of articles with titles in...
by FaithDream 11 years ago
In writing, how do you punctuate thoughts?Should the "narrator" put their character's thoughts in quotation marks similar to dialogue or leave it out? Just wondering what is the proper use of punctuation for writing out thoughts.
by Miebakagh Fiberesima 2 years ago
Has any experienced this? It's a punctuation issue. Which should we use? British or America? I'm at home with the British model from childhood.But getting online on HubPages, we meet the American standard.Seriously a problem arose when I used an online editing software called Grammarly.The...
by Laura Tykarski 11 years ago
Do you put the punctuation inside the parenthesis or outside when you end your sentence?The reason I ask is that it appears to apply differently with many people. I was always taught to put it inside. People have told me that in England it is done this way. Others have said it belongs...
by Tormod 12 years ago
What is the correct use of quotation marks for a quiote within a quote?In the example, Jesus answered and said to him, "If anyone loves me, he will keep My word." should there be Quotation marks before 'Jesus' to show that it is in itself a quotation, and finish with two sets of quotation...
Copyright © 2024 The Arena Media Brands, LLC and respective content providers on this website. HubPages® is a registered trademark of The Arena Platform, Inc. Other product and company names shown may be trademarks of their respective owners. The Arena Media Brands, LLC and respective content providers to this website may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website.
Copyright © 2024 Maven Media Brands, LLC and respective owners.
As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.
For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy
Show DetailsNecessary | |
---|---|
HubPages Device ID | This is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons. |
Login | This is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service. |
Google Recaptcha | This is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy) |
Akismet | This is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy) |
HubPages Google Analytics | This is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy) |
HubPages Traffic Pixel | This is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized. |
Amazon Web Services | This is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy) |
Cloudflare | This is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Hosted Libraries | Javascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy) |
Features | |
---|---|
Google Custom Search | This is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Maps | Some articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Charts | This is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy) |
Google AdSense Host API | This service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Google YouTube | Some articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Vimeo | Some articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Paypal | This is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Facebook Login | You can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Maven | This supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy) |
Marketing | |
---|---|
Google AdSense | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Google DoubleClick | Google provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Index Exchange | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Sovrn | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Facebook Ads | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Amazon Unified Ad Marketplace | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
AppNexus | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Openx | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Rubicon Project | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
TripleLift | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Say Media | We partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy) |
Remarketing Pixels | We may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites. |
Conversion Tracking Pixels | We may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service. |
Statistics | |
---|---|
Author Google Analytics | This is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy) |
Comscore | ComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy) |
Amazon Tracking Pixel | Some articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy) |
Clicksco | This is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy) |