Dialogue: Mini Lesson and Practice

Multiple Choice

What is dialogue?

• A feeling or emotion from a character.

• An internal thought from a character.

• A summary of a conversation.
• A conversation between two or more people.

Multiple Choice

What are the benefits of using dialogue in storytelling?

• It slows down the story

• It propels the story forward

• It makes your story longer.

Dialogue Rules

The next few slides go over some dialogue rules, these are also found on your handout.

Multiple Select

What are the three simple rules for writing dialogue? (Select 3 answers.)

• The quotation marks surround the speaker’s exact words and punctuation.

• Each change of speaker equals a new paragraph.

• The spoken words should be written in italics.

• The spoken words are capitalized and punctuated normally.

Multiple Choice

Which one of these is NOT a dialogue rule?

• New Speaker = New Line

• Put quotation marks around what the character is saying

• Use dialogue tags to show who is speaking and how they are speaking

• Never press enter. We want one big block paragraph.

For the next few questions, use your dialogue handout to help you.

​Practice

Multiple Choice

After the dialogue, what should you do when starting the story up again?

• Start a new paragraph

• Continue on the same line

• Add more dialogue

• Change the speaker

Multiple Choice

What is the correct way to punctuate the following sentence?

"You’ll never find out." She said.

• "You'll never find out" she said.

• "You'll never find out," she said.

• "you'll never find out," she said.

• "You'll never find out", she said.

Multiple Choice

What is the correct way to punctuate the following sentence?

"Stop talking" the teacher shouted

• "stop talking!!" the teacher shouted.

• "Stop talking," the teacher shouted.

• "Stop talking!" the teacher shouted.

• "Stop talking." the teacher shouted.

Open Ended

In the following example, change said to a stronger verb.

"I can't believe we're here!" Jimmy said.

Open Ended

In the following example, change said to a stronger verb.

"I can't believe I failed my test," Tina said.

Multiple Choice

What can the reader infer from Luke's facial expression and body language in the dialogue?

• He is telling the truth

• He is nervous

• He is confident

• He is angry

Extra Time:

Open up your story map

Jot down potential dialogue in each scene (you may need to unsubmit to edit.)

It's okay if not every scene has dialogue.