Grammar and its complications

[bluesqueak <pipdowns@etchells0.demon.co.uk>]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "heiditandy" <heidit at n...> 
And that's why it amazes me that they don't all get the
> punctuation of the quotations, at least, right from the start. I 
mean,
> how can someone read books that never improperly punctuate a 
quotation
> and still write a story which includes something like this:
> 
> "It's  a sunny day today." He said.
> "Yes, very blue sky." Hermione replied.
> 
> Where does the idea come from that this is the right way to do it? 

> Heidi, who didn't realise that there should be four dots in an 
> elipse at the end of a sentence until she started beta reading.

Maybe it comes from those plays the poor teenagers have probably 
just been forced to study?

Pity the poor playwright or scriptwriter when they have to try and 
remember how to punctuate in prose.

After all, punctuation has a completely different purpose in scripts.

Comma? That's a short, pause. 

Semi-colon? Longer, longer; pause.

Full stop (period)? Long. Pause. Or the character has just finished 
their line.
 
Quotation marks? The actor needs to emphasise 'that' word or phrase. 

Quotation marks around dialogue? What? You're putting quotation 
marks around everyone's *dialogue*? You're kidding!

Elipse? The thought of the line is continuing, the words ....

Dash? Hesitation - probably thinking of - some word - or other.

Colon? 
Pip: The thing you put after the character's name and before their 
dialogue. Colons are always followed by capital letters.

Sentence. Does 'not' consist of subject, object, verb. Instead can 
consist of absolutely anything you like. One word lines are fine. No 
word lines are fine, including - 

Pip: Arghhurgleglurg!

Apostrophe? Can be placed as normal. If you really insist.

Pip