# Written dialogue: dash or quotation marks?



## Prostapheresys (Aug 29, 2016)

It's a topic I have recently stumbled upon and that left me quite puzzled since another user pointed out why would I use hyphens (which where actually meant to be dashes but with the wrong key input, my bad XD) for written dialogue in my stories.
So I did a quick re-read of various books from my shelves and texts online for reference and I think the problem could be language barrier since my native language is Italian and not English, because here's what I found out:

Italian texts use dashes to highlight written dialogue
English texts use quotation marks instead
It seems some authors do however have personal preferences on the matter as in some texts different types of punctuation (dashes, quotation marks or even double arrows) were used for written dialogue despite what seemed the general rule.
What do you think about it? Should I write the way I'm most used to or try adapting to appease English readers?


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## Synthex (Aug 29, 2016)

Well it really depends on the language you're writing in. If you are writing in Italian, I'd go with dashes, because that's protocol for the language.  If you're writing in English, use quotation marks.

The only thing to note here is if you have a story where the bulk of it is in one language, but a character speaks a few lines in another language, use the punctuation that matches the more used language. It'll avoid confusion.


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## darien (Aug 29, 2016)

In the end, it doesn't matter much to the reader as long as your style is consistent.


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## Prostapheresys (Aug 29, 2016)

I write in English because I know this way I can reach more people, but due to my Italian roots I find using quotation marks a bit awkward. Especially when you have a dialogue and a "quote" in the same sentence or paragraph (or even inside the dialogue). Here's a silly and extreme example I just came up with:
_
– What do you mean with "you need quotation marks in English"? I thought written dialogue was the same regardless of language! – said Prostapheresys.
– All these years studying English, and nobody told me about this! – he continued, putting particular emphasis on the word "nobody"._

This way, I feel like you have a clear distinction between the written dialogue and the random quotations, while in this case:
_
"What do you mean with "you need quotation marks in English"? I thought written dialogue was the same regardless of language!" said Prostapheresys.
"All these years studying English, and nobody told me about this!" he continued, putting particular emphasis on the word "nobody"._

well... let's just say I would like to keep writing my way


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## quoting_mungo (Aug 29, 2016)

I'll admit I've never seen the use of dashes on BOTH sides of the spoken words before; my experiences with dashes as dialogue marks are limited to them being used in the beginning of a line that starts with spoken words. Generally, though, different writers will have their preferences, different publishers will have their preferences, and different languages will have their typographical standards.

For instance, curly quotes in English will be shaped like 66-99, while Swedish will only use the 99-shaped curly quotes. My uni profs would actually dock us if we handed in papers in Swedish that didn't either use straight quotes or 99-quotes throughout.


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## SSJ3Mewtwo (Aug 29, 2016)

I have seen dashes used to denote a form of speech different from the usual spoken word.  It comes up with communication like telepathy, just to serve as an immediate visual indicator to the reader that a piece of dialog isn't being spoken like most others, so they can picture the scene better.


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## RileyTheOtter (Aug 29, 2016)

Prostapheresys said:


> I write in English because I know this way I can reach more people, but due to my Italian roots I find using quotation marks a bit awkward. Especially when you have a dialogue and a "quote" in the same sentence or paragraph (or even inside the dialogue). Here's a silly and extreme example I just came up with:
> _
> – What do you mean with "you need quotation marks in English"? I thought written dialogue was the same regardless of language! – said Prostapheresys.
> – All these years studying English, and nobody told me about this! – he continued, putting particular emphasis on the word "nobody"._
> ...


in situations like the latter of the two examples with quotes I usually see people using 's to denote quotes inside a quote, though it could just be an american thing.


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## quoting_mungo (Aug 30, 2016)

Abyssalrider said:


> in situations like the latter of the two examples with quotes I usually see people using 's to denote quotes inside a quote, though it could just be an american thing.


Alternating quotation mark types (single/double quotes) is standard at least in written English (and Swedish). Can't speak for languages other than those, but I'd expect it to be the same at least for languages that use the Latin alphabet.


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## Prostapheresys (Aug 30, 2016)

Abyssalrider said:


> in situations like the latter of the two examples with quotes I usually see people using 's to denote quotes inside a quote, though it could just be an american thing.





quoting_mungo said:


> Alternating quotation mark types (single/double quotes) is standard at least in written English (and Swedish). Can't speak for languages other than those, but I'd expect it to be the same at least for languages that use the Latin alphabet.


Now that you mention it I remember seeing that somewhere, so yeah, I guess that's the most common way to do it.

Btw, I'm liking where this thread is going, with all these little takes in written language... Please, tell me more, I find it interesting


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## Synthex (Aug 30, 2016)

Prostapheresys said:


> Now that you mention it I remember seeing that somewhere, so yeah, I guess that's the most common way to do it.
> 
> Btw, I'm liking where this thread is going, with all these little takes in written language... Please, tell me more, I find it interesting


If you want to know something interesting about writing, I have something. Because of the prevalence of typing to people instead of actually speaking to them, the internet is developing it's own sort of dialect. People are using capitalization and punctuation in new and weird ways to try to covey emotion in a place where we don't have tone to help us. Take the sentence "Stop that right now."

STOP THAT RIGHT NOW
Stop. That. Right. Now.
stopthatrightnow
stop that..... right now......
Stop that right NOW.
etc etc

They all get read differently in your head. People have traded off grammatical accuracy for tone conveyance and I think it's fascinating.


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## quoting_mungo (Aug 30, 2016)

Synthex said:


> People are using capitalization and punctuation in new and weird ways to try to covey emotion in a place where we don't have tone to help us. Take the sentence "Stop that right now."
> 
> STOP THAT RIGHT NOW
> Stop. That. Right. Now.
> ...


Honestly, this predates the Internet, it's just become more prevalent with text being used to convey "dialogue" to a greater degree. I've seen most or all of those in dialogue in books back when Internet was still a wee baby phenomenon - it's basically a form of phonetic writing.


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## Synthex (Aug 30, 2016)

quoting_mungo said:


> Honestly, this predates the Internet, it's just become more prevalent with text being used to convey "dialogue" to a greater degree. I've seen most or all of those in dialogue in books back when Internet was still a wee baby phenomenon - it's basically a form of phonetic writing.


True, much of it has been around pre-internet. The fascinating thing about the changes is how fast it's happening now. There's also written slang to go along with it, and weirder alterations. Such as smashing random letters to indicate frustration, and deliberately misspelling words and removing letters to indicate distress, or excitement. There's more to it as well..... but my memory is terrible lol. It's neat to read about though.


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