Use an em dash if the speaker stops mid-word, in the same way as you’d use a hyphen. Put it inside the closing quotation marks. Use an em dash if the speaker’s able to complete a word, but someone or something stops them before they finish their thought. Put it inside the closing quotation marks.

An introductory paragraph for an essay or paper should usually include the following three elements: An attention-getter to draw your readers in and make them interested in the subject matter. A brief overview of the subject to be discussed in the essay or paper.

It is usually best not to begin or end your introductory paragraph with a quotation. You weaken your argument by relying on someone else’s words so early on in the paper. If you do quote in the first paragraph, make sure it is short and to the point.

The primary purpose of an introductory paragraph is to pique the interest of your reader and identify the topic and purpose of the essay. It often ends with a thesis statement. You can engage your readers right from the start through a number of tried-and-true ways.

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.

Here are tips for writing dialogue that connects your characters to their world:

1. Use background action to add tone and mood.
2. Add movement to dialogue to keep the story moving.
3. Use mid-dialogue actions for tense interruption.
4. Reveal character relationships through movement and action.

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.

The most common way to answer that question is below. How do you write action in the middle of dialogue? You write action during dialogue by writing your action line then writing the character name and dialogue and continuing with the action in the previous line.

a: Use punctuation (comma, ellipsis, dash) to indicate a pause or break. may be in the middle of a sentence or at the end of it. You can use commas, dashes, or ellipses to cue different types of pauses.

SCREENPLAY FORMAT: BEAT. BEAT: If you want to indicate a character pausing in mid-speech, don’t use the word “pause.” The correct term is “beat.” And you insert it in a parenthesis right between the two lines of dialogue. Don’t overuse this.

The ellipsis indicates a pause in dialogue, such as a thought trailing off.

Play scripts are different. They don’t use speech marks, but obviously, people are speaking in a play. However, it is easy to change plays into stories by using speech marks and the text given. Change this short passage from a play into a story using speech marks where necessary.

The text being read should be enclosed within quotation marks. When a character recites poetry or song lyrics, enclose the lines in quotes. You may indicate the end of a line by means of a slash (“/”). This is preferable to ending each line with a hard return, as it does not alter the dialogue margins.

A dash is a punctuation mark. An en-dash is commonly used for ranges, such as “6–10 years.” An em-dash is longer, and used to set off a phrase—often a parenthetical thought, like this—from the rest of the sentence.

Double dashes are used instead of commas (or parentheses) to interrupt a sentence. It is often said that we use dashes to signal that something crucial is being added to a sentence and use parentheses to signal that the interruption is relatively unimportant (e.g., to give dates or citations or examples).