Dialogue

1. Dialogue

2. Look at “Rescue in the Rain”. • Read and study the dialogue on page 2 of the story. • Write down things you notice about dialogue. • Things to consider: what it looks like, how it’s punctuated, indentation, spacing, etc.

3. Share with your partner some things you wrote down about dialogue.

4. Let’s take a few notes. Open your notebook to the grammar section. Title your notes: Basic Rules of Dialogue.

5. Basic Rules of Dialogue • Dialogue consists of the exact words spokenby people in your story. “Help!” Zach yelled and then realized how stupid that was.

6. Use quotation marks to enclose a person’s exact words. “Man, what happened to you?”

7. Commas, quotation marks, and exclamation points may separate dialogue from the rest of the sentence. “I have a dog too,” Tom said. “Help!” Zach yelled. “Is your dog hurt?”

8. Start dialogue with a capital letter. Then, as Goldie whimpered again, he added, “Is your dog hurt?”

9. Start a new paragraph every time the speaker changes. “Help!” Zach yelled and then realized how stupid that was. Nobody would hear him out here in the middle of nowhere. To his amazement, there was another shout. Zach yelled again and again, and a few moments later, Tom Garber’s face appeared at the opening of the hole. “Man, what happened to you?”

10. Compose a dialogue between two of the people in the painting “Nighthawks” by Edward Hopper. Use appropriate punctuation.