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ELA 3: You Don't Say: Dialogue and Quotation Marks 364 Views
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Description:
This may shock you, but quotation marks are used to...mark quotations. Mind blown, right? Today's video will teach us about them and how to format dialogue.
Transcript
- 00:05
[Dino and Coop singing]
- 00:13
Think about all the conversations you have in a day... [Group of people talking]
- 00:16
You talk with your mom...
- 00:17
Your teacher...
- 00:19
Maybe even your baby sister.... though does that really count as a conversation….? [Girl talking to a baby looking confused]
Full Transcript
- 00:25
Okay, now that you have all of those conversations rattling around your brain, try and imagine [Different people spinning round the girls head]
- 00:30
which ones would be entertaining to read as dialogue in a story...
- 00:34
…probably not many, right? [The story explodes to reveal the baby sister]
- 00:36
But that doesn't mean you're a boring person!
- 00:39
It just means that most conversations aren't really important enough to share in a story. [Coop pointing at a blackboard]
- 00:44
And that's why today's topic is how to use dialogue! [Spaceship flies past]
- 00:47
See, not only is day-to-day conversation kind of boring, but it's usually chock full of [Schoolkids talking at the lockers]
- 00:53
filler words...
- 00:54
Y'know, like…."Hmm, umm, like, ahhh, and well."
- 00:58
If you include any of those in a story, that'd be one long, kind of boring story… [The story explodes leaving the word boring]
- 01:04
That's why we always want our dialogue to be to the point.
- 01:06
It should be shorter than normal conversation, with no filler words.
- 01:10
And unlike boring conversations about tooth-brushing and homework, dialogue in stories should be [School kids talking sat on the grass]
- 01:14
included to either set a scene, or make something happen.
- 01:17
Since stories are all about, well, the story, then your dialogue should be all about the [Pages turning in a book]
- 01:21
story, too.
- 01:22
On a more technical note, the spoken words should always appear within quotations, including
- 01:27
any punctuation – like this.
- 01:29
Oh, and don't forget to add the dialogue tags.
- 01:32
Y'know, like “he said” or “she said,” so that people know exactly which character [Dialogue tags appearing]
- 01:35
is saying what.
- 01:36
And any sentence that normally ends with a period instead gets a comma, followed by a
- 01:40
quotation mark, and then the dialogue tag.
- 01:43
Like this. [Example is shown]
- 01:44
So now that we've covered our bases, let's look at two examples and identify which one is [Baseball player is kicked off a base]
- 01:49
worth keeping... and which one should probably get deleted immediately. [Example 2 folder is chosen]
- 01:53
First up to bat... [An apple is hit with a baseball bat and explodes]
- 01:54
“We only have ten minutes left until the black hole closes,” yelled Samantha.
- 01:59
“If we don't fly our space ship into it soon, we'll be trapped on this alien planet forever!” [Sentence being typed out]
- 02:04
Geesh, we hope Samantha gets out of that alright… [Spaceship flying towards a blackhole]
- 02:06
sounds kind of terrifying.
- 02:08
While Samantha deals with that, let's check out our second example:
- 02:11
“So, like, what do you want to do today?” asked Marcus.
- 02:15
“Hmm. I dunno, really.
- 02:16
Whatever you want?
- 02:18
Ahhh….yeah, I don't care.
- 02:19
Uhhh…hm.”
- 02:22
So, which one do you think is best?
- 02:24
If you guessed the first one, you'd be right. [Example 2 folder is set on fire]
- 02:26
That's because it's to the point, moves the story forwards, doesn't contain any filler words,
- 02:30
and is interesting to read.
- 02:31
The other passage?
- 02:32
Well, it pretty much fails all of those tests. [Fail stamp]
- 02:34
Oh, and before we move on, let's help Samantha get out of that mess… [A hand stretches the black hole out so the spaceship can go through]
- 02:39
Phew.
- 02:40
Close one.
- 02:41
And just in time, too, because that's it!
- 02:42
No more tips!
- 02:43
But as long as you keep in mind what we covered, writing dialogue will be a snap! [Someone snaps a twig]
- 02:48
And yes, you technically could make everyone speak like your baby sister, but we're pretty
- 02:52
sure a book called, "Mmmgaah Maah Maah Maah!!!" won't sell very well… [Baby in a cot next to the book]
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