Quotation Marks in Dialogue - 6th Grade Grammar
Hello class! Today we're going to talk about quotation marks in dialogue. Quotation marks are special punctuation marks that are used to show what someone is saying out loud. When we write dialogue, we use quotation marks to show the words that someone says.
For instance, imagine if I was describing a conversation between two characters, Bob and Lisa. Bob says, "Hi Lisa, how are you?" In this case, we're showing that Bob is speaking these words out loud by putting them inside of quotation marks. This is how we tell the reader that Bob is speaking directly to Lisa.
It's important to use quotation marks to make it clear when someone is speaking. Quotation marks help the reader understand who said what in a story or conversation. This can be especially helpful if two or more characters are speaking at the same time.
But be careful! Quotation marks should only be used for direct speech. If you're telling the reader what someone said without using their exact words, you don't need to use quotation marks. For example, if I said, "Bob asked Lisa how she was doing," I'm not using direct speech, so I don't need to use quotation marks.
Now let's practice using quotation marks in dialogue. I'll say a sentence out loud, and then you'll show me how to write it down using quotation marks.
"For breakfast, I ate pancakes and bacon," I said.
"Great job!" you respond. "You put quotation marks around the sentence you said out loud."
A good way to remember when to write something in quotation marks is to think of it as putting speech in a "speech bubble." Just like how characters in comic books have speech bubbles around what they're saying, we put quotation marks around what someone is saying in written dialogue.
I hope that helped you all understand quotation marks in dialogue a little better! Keep practicing and you'll have it down in no time.