Capitalization and punctuation for dialogue with exclamation marks.

Forums: English, Grammar, Punctuation, Capitalization
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Hi all. I'm wondering about the proper punctuation and capitalization rules for dialogue which includes question marks or exclamation points in the middle.

Examples:

“That’s far enough!” she commanded, “Show yourself!”

"Are we there yet?" he asked, "Or do we still have a while to go?"

"How much longer?" he whined, "This drive is getting tiresome."

Questions:

1) After "commanded", is a comma appropriate, or should it be a period instead?
2) Should "Show" be capitalized, even if a comma is to be used?
3) Should "yet" be followed by a question mark, or is a comma more appropriate?
4) Should asked be followed by a comma or a period?
5) Should "Or" be capitalized, even if a comma is to be used?
6) Same questions regarding "whined" and "This".

Thanks!

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@DaveinJapan,

The commas after commanded, asked, and whined, are generally dialog tags. If you're providing dialog information in the middle of a sentence, you use the comma. If it's the end of a sentence, you can go for a period. E. g.

“That’s far enough!” she commanded. “Show yourself!” <-- I prefer this because the two bits of her speech are separate sentences. Same is true of the third sentence. The second one is just one sentence of speaking, interrupted by the dialog tag.

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@jespah,

Thanks Jespah, great input. Regarding example number 2:

"Are we there yet?" he asked, "Or do we still have a while to go?"

Should the "o" in "or" be capitalized? It seems weird to me either way.

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Capitalization and punctuation for dialogue with exclamation marks.

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