Three More Questions

[rosalinda-143.livejournal.com]

Okay, so three more questions that have me confused...

Firstly, commas:

I know all the basics of a comma. What confuses me is how I should use it when listing something out. To word that as a question... well I'll just give you an example and see if I can word it as a question.

Would I write it like this?

I had my five cats: Amber, Richard, Arthur, Camille, and Mr. Mew.

Or this?

I had my five cats: Amber, Richard, Arthur, Camille and Mr. Mew.

I'm pretty sure I was told that I needed a comma before the and if I want the reader to know that Camille and Mr. Mew are two separate cats. But now I'm just not so sure anymore. Any suggestions.

Secondly, capitalization:

Again I know the basics. And again I'll just give you an example.

Would I write it like this?

"Hi, how are you?" He asked.

Or this?

"Hi, how are you?" he asked.

I know that when you end with a comma it doesn't have to be capitalized, but I see the second choice all the time in books, so it had me wondering...

And thirdly, more on capitalization (this kind of ties in with the second question):

My heart gave a wild lurch, I exclaimed, “Holey crap!” And jumped back my heart now racing.

Or...

My heart gave a wild lurch, I exclaimed, "Holey crap!" and jumped back my heart now racing.

Does it depend on the comma after "exclaimed" or the punctuation that come after the "crap" on whether or not I capitalize "and"?

Any answers are much appreciated! Thank you in advanced for listening and answering all my question! I know I must be annoying, but I'm still new to this correct grammar thing.

Thanks again!

peace.love.happiness.

~ J

Comments

[words-of-ela.livejournal.com]

I'm not an expert in grammar, but since I have so many, many lovely grammar books, I think I might be able to help.

The first case:

Nowadays both sentences are correct. With items in a series the final comma is often omitted, especially where this wouldn't result in ambiguity (even though William Strunk wouldn't agree).

The second one:

The correct one is: "Hi, how are you?" he asked. That's because tags are always part of the same sentence as the dialogue (even when you have ! and?).

The third one:

In majority of books that I read the similar examples would treat dialogue as an inserted sentence (sorry I can't remember how it's called in English), so it would be:

My heart gave a wild lurch, I exclaimed, "Holey crap," and jumped back my heart now racing.

But when I wrote sentence like that my beta would always rearranged it different (and I always forget to ask why) and I can't find any grammar rule that would apply for this kind of situation, so I'm lost about this one. Sorry.

Hope somebody else would know about this. I would like to hear which one is correct and why, too.

[starlight83.livejournal.com]

The answer to your first question depends on who you ask. Technically, both are correct. Just don't mix and match. Pick which way you're going to do it and stick with it.

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_comma

Second Question, the correct punctuation is:

"Hi, how are you?" he asked.

And third question, the correct punctuation is:

My heart gave a wild lurch. I exclaimed, "Holy crap!" and jumped back, my heart now racing.

In both cases, you're not needing to use a capital after your dialogue because you're not starting a new sentence. Never capitalize "he said" or "he asked" after dialogue.

I think what you might be seeing that's confusing you is instances where people write something like "He laughed." This gets capitalized because it's separate from the dialogue. Characters cannot "laugh" dialogue. (Or, for that matter sigh, whimper, etc.) So it gets to be its own sentence.

[rosalinda-143.livejournal.com]

What if it's a whole paragraph of dialogue, would I still not capitalize afterward?

Thanks again for the help!

peace.love.happiness.

~ J

[starlight83.livejournal.com]

Even if you've got an entire paragraph of dialogue, you still wouldn't capitalize "he said" afterward.

And if you've got something like:

He said, "An entire paragraph of dialogue!" and walked out the door.

You still wouldn't need to put a capital, so long as what's afterward is part of the same sentence as what came before your dialogue. Though you might not want to construct a sentence this way if you know you have a large speech coming, since your reader might have forgotten the beginning of the sentence by the time they get to the other end of it.