Aim: What is meaningful dialogue?

Do Now: Discuss the mid-term

Dialogue is a conversation in writing. When writers incorporate dialogue into their

pieces, it makes the story seem more believable. In addition, dialogue helps to move a story forward, reveal character relationships and increase the emotion of a story.

Meaningful Dialogue

When a new speaker speaks, start a new paragraph

“What do you want for dinner?” Dad asked.“I’m in the mood for pizza,” I replied.

Always put punctuation marks (commas and periods) inside the quotation marks“I wonder,” she said, “what will I be getting for my birthday.”

Introduce or follow dialogue with dialogue tags (such as said, replied, commented, yelled) along with the speaker’s name“I don’t know,” said Mike in a puzzled voice.

Writing Meaningful Dialogue

1) To combine two closely related complete sentences (independent clauses) which are not joined by a conjunction*

Semi-ColonThe Semi-colon has 3 primary functions:

2) To separate complete sentences (independent clauses) that are joined by a conjunctive adverb*

3) To separate items in a list when commas alone would be confusing

EXAMPLE

The man was wet; he was standing in the rain without an umbrella.

In this example, there are two complete sentences (independent clauses):

#1: “The man was wet.” (independent clause)

#2 “He was standing in the rain without an umbrella.” (independent clause)

EXAMPLE

Jane likes fruit; however, she does not like apples. In this example, there are two complete sentences (independent clauses)

#1: “Jane likes fruit.” (independent clause)

#2 “She does not like apples.” (independent clause)

These clauses are separated by a semicolon and the conjunctive adverb “however”.

The school specializes in three fields of study: economics, the study of the economy; philosophy, the study of thought; and anthropology, the study of mankind.

#1: “economics, the study of the economy” Field of study #1

#2: “philosophy, the study of thought.” Field of study #2

#3: “anthropology, the study of mankind.”Field of study #3

This list of fields of studies are separated by a semicolon.

Example