1. writerdude11

    writerdude11 New Member

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    Capitalization question

    Discussion in 'Word Mechanics' started by writerdude11, May 9, 2013.

    In the following sentence, is it correct grammar to capitalize the first word after dialogue is written?. Here's an example.

    "Oh?" T(?)he therapist responded in surprise. "And what was that" S(?)he asked.

    If anyone could clarify this I'd greatly appreciate it, thanks!
     
  2. minstrel

    minstrel Leader of the Insquirrelgency Supporter Contributor

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    Don't capitalize. The dialogue tag is technically part of the sentence.

    You can verify this by reading any novel, you know - go ahead and pick up a book!
     
  3. killbill

    killbill Member

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    I thought the dialogue ending in question mark (?) or exclamation (!) should have tags starting with capital letters, otherwise you should have a comma at the end of the dialogue inside the quotation marks and the tags should start with small letters. I don't have time to verify, so I may be wrong.
     
  4. Thomas Kitchen

    Thomas Kitchen Proofreader in the Making Contributor

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    No, don't capitalise if it's an 'extra bit' of what she's saying e.g. '"Why are you doing that?" she asked (no capital letter needed).' However, if it's NOT something like this, then it does need to be capitalised e.g. '"Are you all right?" He grinned (there needs to be a capital letter here because you can't say a grin).'

    Hope that helps. :)
     
  5. mammamaia

    mammamaia nit-picker-in-chief Contributor

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    ditto what thomas and minstrel said...
     
  6. Cogito

    Cogito Former Mod, Retired Supporter Contributor

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