Post History

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/47221
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

When a piece of writing has a quoted sentence followed by a dialogue tag, the sentence is usually ended with a comma (inside the quotation marks) and the dialogue tag is in sentence case, like this:

> "Look," said Hermione.
> 
> "I never pegged you for a fan of the obvious, Sam," she said.

The above is the style recommended by, say, the page [8 Essential Rules for Punctuating Dialogue](https://www.authorlearningcenter.com/writing/fiction/w/character-development/6491/8-essential-rules-for-punctuating-dialogue---article).

On a couple of occasions, though, I've seen people writing the quoted sentence with a period at the end, and then starting the dialogue tag with a capital letter, like this:

> "Hey." Said John.
> 
> "Not a problem, buddy." Responds Keith.

Is the latter style acceptable too? My best guess is no, it's not, simply because I've never seen it in print, and it makes it seem like "Said John." and "Responds Keith." are supposed to be complete, independent sentences.

Original score: 5