How to Punctuate Dialogue Tags

Last time, we talked about how using different dialogue tags can affect your writing. Now that you've seen some examples of different ways to introduce dialogue, let's talk about the mechanics of dialogue tags. I see mistakes in dialogue tag punctuation all the time, but they're fairly simple to fix.

A dialogue tag, or attribution, is part of the surrounding sentence and is set off by commas. Most often, the tag comes after the dialogue. In these cases, the comma goes between the final word of dialogue and the closing quotation mark, then the tag follows. If the tag interrupts the dialogue, use a comma after the tag as well before continuing with an opening quotation mark and the rest of the dialogue. The attribution is lowercase unless it starts a sentence or includes a name. Let's look at a few examples. 

✅ "Let's go for a walk," she suggested.
✅ "If we leave now," he said, "we'll have time to get to the park and back before lunch."

Notice that she and he are lowercase, and the only periods are the ones at the very end of the sentence. If your speaker's name is given, of course, it will be capitalized. If the tag comes before the dialogue, the comma goes between the tag and the opening quotation mark. When you have a question mark or exclamation mark in the dialogue, it takes the place of the comma or period and goes inside the quotation marks.

✅ "Can I come too?" Stacy asked.
✅ They both shouted, "No!"

What you want to avoid is putting a period or nothing at all between the dialogue and its tag. You also don't want to double up on punctuation or put punctuation outside the final quotation mark. These sentences are incorrectly punctuated:

❌ "Let's go for a walk." She suggested.
❌ "If we leave now" he said "we'll have time to get to the park and back before lunch."
❌ "Can I come too?," Stacy asked.
❌ "They both shouted, "No"!

You can indicate interrupted dialogue with an em dash, leaving out the comma before the tag. But if you use an ellipsis to trail off, a comma is still needed.

✅ "I don't want—" She snapped her mouth shut.
✅ "Maybe we could . . . ," he muttered.

​Now, what happens if you replace a dialogue tag with an action or leave the tag out altogether? That's perfectly fine! In fact, I encourage you to do that sometimes. It will give variety to your writing and can even be used to convey pace and tone. In a two-person exchange, if it's clear who's talking, then you can leave out dialogue tags for a few lines. This is often useful in a fast-paced argument. But if there are more than two characters or it's not clear who is saying what, it's better to include dialogue tags.

If you want your character to move or do something while they're talking, you'll format your dialogue a little differently. If what they say before the action is a complete sentence, use a period instead of a comma and then capitalize the following sentence. If their action comes in the middle of their sentence and there is still an attribution, use commas like normal, but don't capitalize the first word of the dialogue following the action. Let's see some examples.

✅ "I know what you're doing." He uncrossed his arms and stood up. "It's not hard to figure out."
✅ "You're pushing everyone away," he said, taking a step toward her, "because you're scared."

In the first example, his actions come in between two complete sentences, and there is no tag. We therefore need to punctuate and capitalize the action sentence like we would any other sentence. In the second example, however, he takes an action while he's speaking. We use a comma before the attribution and another two commas to set off the action before continuing with the remainder of the spoken sentence. We also don't capitalize because since it is a continuation of his sentence and not the beginning of a new one.

However, if we want to truly interrupt his second sentence with an action and no attribution at all, we would do it this way:

✅ "You're pushing everyone away"—he took a step toward her—"because you're scared."
❌ "You're pushing everyone away," he took a step toward her, "because you're scared."

It would be wrong in this case to use commas to set off the action because that would essentially be creating a comma splice (two or more separate sentences joined by only a comma, which is incorrect).

I hope this brief guide on how to correctly punctuate dialogue tags has been helpful. But I know it can get tricky sometimes. If you need some help making sure your dialogue is punctuated just right, contact me. I'd be happy to help!​