Said, said and SAID

[eduthepenguin]

Continuing in my quest to improve my writing skills, I turn again to the grammarians (yes, it's a word, which you should know if you read the essay I provided in my last entry, so pah) in my friends-list. I've run into a snag with dialogue writing. This is actually more of a nuance than an actual problem, but here it goes anyway

Comments

[miriampenguin]

I've heard the same as morningstar.
Specifically, in the US, the comma goes inside the quotes. Whereas in British English, I believe, it's typically outside of the quotes.

Though I forget what you would do if there's other punctuation... I think it's like this:
"Jane?", he asked. "What did you do to the toaster?"

As for the whole 'said' issue... I actually hadn't given it much thought. However, looking at what morningstar said about it, I'd tend to agree, unless the word you use instead of said/asked adds context:

"Jane!", Steve hollered from the kitchen. "What the fuck did you do the toaster?"

Oh, and using 'exclaimed' bugs me somewhat, since it's over-used and is redundant if you have an exclamation point. Only place I might see it fitting is if you're writing something in the style of a comic book. :P

Oh, and speaking of not using over-used and vague words, you might be interested in this.

Note that I'm not a grammarian... in fact, I never was taught proper grammar from the inside out (at least, not in English. I learned more grammar in Spanish class than I ever did in English). Though the comma placement without extra punctuation I'm pretty sure is correct.

[miriampenguin]

Oops. Didn't see the extra r in morningstarr.

[miriampenguin]

... Or the 'the', apparently. :P

Must be bedtime. :P

[miriampenguin]

Oooops. Looks like I was wrong about the extra comma.

Found this linked to the grammar page you posted before.

[eduthepenguin]

It makes sense that I write it outside then, since my school taught British English, pretty much. The thing that bugs me about putting the comma on the inside of the quotation marks is that you end up with only space between the end of the dialogue and the following words. If I read it out loud, my reflex is to put a small pause in between, which usually means a comma goes there.

Thanks.

[lyspeth]

I think even in British English that particular comma should go inside, because the comma would be present in the sentence even if it weren't interrupted by the attribution. My understanding of the British rule is that commas and periods belonging to the quotation or speech go inside, and those that occur because of the grammar of the surrounding material go outside.

[eduthepenguin]

That... makes sense, actually. Thanks!

Also, hello person I don't know. Heh.

[lyspeth]

Hi!

I found your journal in comments on a feed (overheardnyc, I think) and was intrigued by discussions of punctuation. :)