How do you write dialogue when someone interrupts?
Dialogue abruptly cut off When dialogue is cut off—the character is being choked or something suddenly diverts his attention or another character interrupts him—use an em dash before the closing quotation mark. Dialogue can be interrupted mid-word or at the end of a word.
How do you use ellipses in dialogue?
Use Ellipses to Indicate a Pause in the Middle of a Line of Dialogue. General Rule: Ellipses in the middle of a line of dialogue indicate that the speaker stopped talking momentarily. “Do you know of any good places to hike around the Illinois Valley?” he asked.
How do you use ellipses examples?
When to use ellipses Use an ellipsis to show an omission, or leaving out, of a word or words in a quote. Use ellipses to shorten the quote without changing the meaning. For example: “After school I went to her house, which was a few blocks away, and then came home.”
Can you put a comma after ellipsis?
No, you should not put a comma after an ellipsis. Use either the ellipsis by itself or the comma by itself. Wikipedia has an example of an ellipsis immediately followed by a comma, but this is abnormal in the context of writing dialogue.
How do you quote an ellipsis in MLA?
To form an ellipsis in MLA when the omitted material appears at the end of your sentence, type the ellipsis with three periods with space before each period and include the closing quotation marks immediately after the third period. Note that the period to end your sentence comes after the parenthetical citation.
When should the quotations be used in-text?
Use direct quotations rather than paraphrasing: when reproducing an exact definition (see Section 6.22 of the Publication Manual), when an author has said something memorably or succinctly, or. when you want to respond to exact wording (e.g., something someone said).
How do you write a long quote in MLA?
Long quotations For quotations that are more than four lines of prose or three lines of verse, place quotations in a free-standing block of text and omit quotation marks. Start the quotation on a new line, with the entire quote indented ½ inch from the left margin while maintaining double-spacing.