Quotation Marks & Dialogue
📋 What it is
Quotation marks wrap the exact words someone says; the punctuation goes INSIDE, and a new speaker starts a new line.
🗣️ Coach says
When a character speaks, their exact words go inside quotation marks, and the comma or period sits INSIDE the closing mark. BOLT keeps leaving the punctuation outside — catch it.
🧠 Memory hook
Exact spoken words → inside quotes. The end mark → inside the quotes too.
😂 Giggle
What do you call a proofreader who never rests?
A full-time semicolon; always joining two jobs!
😲 Whoa!
The very same sentence can mean opposite things depending on where the quotation marks go — punctuation is power.
🖍️ Grade BOLT-3000's dialogue punctuation.
You're the teacher — mark BOLT-3000's work, then reveal how you did. (Grading a robot: all the skill, none of the sting.)
BOLT wrote: ““I'm ready”, said Ana.”
✗ Needs a fix — the comma goes INSIDE the quotes: “I'm ready,” said Ana.
In dialogue the closing comma/period sits inside the quotation marks.
🧪 Try it! (2 minutes)
Write one line of dialogue with a speaker tag, punctuated correctly.