Transcript Hyphens, Dialogue, Pacing

Pacing, and Dialogue
A few minor points to clear up
Minor Point 1
Sometimes, you really have to hyphenate.
“I don't want to over emphasize this point.”
“People classified as dwarfs typically pay $1,500
more in medical expenses than normal height
people.”
Minor Point 1
You add a hyphen because the two words are
acting as one; if they're separate, the reader
has to pause and figure it out.

“over-emphasize” acts as a verb


“over emphasize” you have to think about
“normal-height” acts as an adjective

“normal height people” might be “normal-height
people” or “normal height-people”
Minor Point 1
This is especially important for noun phrases
and adjectives.
mother of pearl
mother-of-pearl
red light district
red-light district
Dialogue Format
A new speaker starts a new paragraph.
“Good heavens, Lowell! Why are there no cucumber
sandwiches?”
“There were no cucumbers in the market this
morning, sir.”
“No cucumbers?”
“None sir, not even for ready money.”
Dialogue Format
If the same person continues speaking, with
some description in between, you don't need
to start a new paragraph.
“French songs, I cannot possibly allow,” Lady
Bracknell went on, following him into the other room.
“People either look shocked, which is vulgar, or laugh,
which is worse.”
Dialogue Format
You need a comma to introduce a quote,
unless you're working it into the sentence.
Cecily said she didn't like “novels that ended happily.”
Miss Prism replied, “The good [people] ended happily
and the bad, unhappily. That is what fiction means.”
Dialogue Format
Final punctuation usually goes inside the
quotation marks; for narrative, this is true
almost all the time.
Cecily said she didn't like “novels that ended happily.”
Miss Prism replied, “The good [people] ended happily
and the bad, unhappily. That is what fiction means.”
Pacing
Punctuation, or the lack of it, can make a
sentence sound slower or faster.
“I never in my entire life saw anything like this.”
“I never, in my entire life, saw anything like this.”
“I never, in my entire life, saw anything, like this.”
Pacing
A pause can also put emphasis on a particular
word or phrase.
“The intersection was just like any other except that it
wasn't.”
“The intersection was just like any other, except that it
wasn't.”
-Bassam Elshorafa
Pacing
This can be particularly helpful for dramatic, or
comedic, effect.
“They had come to the very midst of the Dead
Marshes, and it was dark.”
“You will bring us… a shrubbery!!”
-J.R.R. Tolkien, The Two Towers; Monty Python, Monty Python and the Holy Grail