Even a person who is far from the literary field will not hurt to know how to compose a dialogue. For students, schoolchildren studying the Russian language course, novice authors, this skill is simply necessary. Another situation: your child asks for help with homework. Let's say he's given the task of composing the dialogue "The Book in Our Lives" or something similar. The semantic component of the task does not cause difficulties. But the punctuation marks in the characters' lines raise serious doubts, and the lines themselves were built somehow not too consistently.
In such a case, you should know how to compose a dialogue in Russian on a given topic. In the proposed short article, we will try to analyze the concept of a dialogue, the basic principles of its construction and the features of punctuation.
What is this shape?
The concept of dialogue refers to the process of mutual communication. Replicas during it are interspersed with response phrases with a constantreversal of the roles of listener and speaker. The communicative feature of the dialogue is the unity in the expression, perception of thoughts and reactions to them, reflected in its structure. That is, the composition of the dialogue is interrelated replicas of the interlocutors.
Without knowing how to write dialogue, a beginner writer is bound to fail. After all, this literary form is one of the most common in works of art.
When dialogue is appropriate
Each time it takes place in a specific situation, when each of the participants is alternately listening or speaking. Each of the replicas of the dialogue can be considered a speech act - an action that implies a certain result.
Its main features are due to purposefulness, moderation and observance of certain rules. The purposefulness of speech influence is understood as the hidden or explicit goals of any of the participants in the dialogue. It can be a message, a question, advice, an order, a command, or an apology.
To achieve their own goals, the interlocutors alternately implement certain intentions, the purpose of which is to induce the other party to specific actions of a speech nature. Inciting information is expressed either directly in the form of an imperative verb, or indirectly by questions like: "Could you?" etc.
How to write a dialogue. General Rules
- Messages are being submitted in batches. First, the listener is prepared for the perception of information, then it is substantiated, after which it is directly submitted (in the formsuch as advice or requests). At the same time, it is imperative to comply with the necessary etiquette standards.
- The topic of the message should correspond to the main purpose of the conversation.
- The speech of the interlocutors must be unambiguous, understandable and consistent.
In case of non-compliance with these rules, a violation of mutual understanding occurs. An example is the incomprehensible speech of one of the interlocutors (with a predominance of unknown terminology or fuzzy articulation).
How the conversation starts
At the beginning of the dialogue, a greeting is implied and quite often the question is asked about the possibility of the conversation itself: "Can I talk to you?", "May I distract you?" etc. Next, most often there are questions about business, he alth and life in general (most often this applies to informal conversations). These rules should be used if, for example, you need to compose a dialogue of friends. This is usually followed by messages about the immediate purpose of the conversation.
Further subject to be developed. How to compose a dialogue that will look logical and natural? Its structure implies the speaker's information given in portions, interspersed with the interlocutor's remarks with an expression of his reaction. At some point, the latter may seize the initiative in a conversation.
The end of the conversation consists of concluding phrases of a generalizing nature and, as a rule, is accompanied by the so-called etiquette phrases, followed by farewell.
Ideally, each topic of the dialogue shouldbe developed before the transition to the next one is made. If one of the interlocutors does not support the topic, this is a sign of a lack of interest in it or in an attempt to end the dialogue as a whole.
About the culture of speech
When building speech behavior, both interlocutors need understanding, a certain ability to penetrate the thoughts and mood of the other, to catch his motives. Without all this, successful communication is impossible. The dialogue technique implies various communication models with a variety of means for expressing ideas, feelings and thoughts, as well as mastering tactical communication skills.
According to the general rules, each question asked requires its own answer. An incentive response is expected in the form of a word or action. Narration implies feedback communication in the form of a counter remark or focused attention.
The last term refers to such a lack of speech when the listener, using non-verbal signs (gestures, interjections, facial expressions), makes it clear that the speech has been heard and understood.
Going to write
To compose a dialogue in writing, you need to know the basic rules for its proper construction. So, let's consider the basic rules by which you can make a dialogue of 4 or more replicas. Both the simplest, and quite intricate with a complex plot.
Use it very many authors in their works of art. Dialogue differs from direct speech by the absence of quotation marks and a new paragraph for each replica. If the replica is given in quotation marks, then most often it is implied that this is the hero’s thought. All this is written according to fairly strict rules, which are described below.
How to compose a dialogue in Russian in compliance with the laws of punctuation
When composing a dialogue, it is very important to use punctuation marks correctly. But first, a little about terminology:
A replica is a phrase spoken by the characters aloud or to themselves.
Under the words of the author - a phrase that contains an attributive verb (asked, answered, said, etc.) or a phrase designed to replace it in meaning.
Sometimes you can do without the words of the author - usually when the conversation consists of replicas of only two people (for example, you have a task - to compose a dialogue with a friend). In this case, each replica is preceded by a dash, followed by a space. Dot, ellipsis, exclamation or question mark at the end of the phrase.
When each replica is accompanied by the words of the author, the situation is a little more complicated: the dot should be replaced with a comma (the rest of the signs remain in their places), then a space, a dash and again a space. After that, the words of the author are given (exclusively with a small letter).
More difficult options
Sometimes the words of the author can be placed before the replica. If at the very beginning of the dialogue they are not highlighted as a separate paragraph, a colon is placed after them, and the remark begins on a new line. In the same way, the next (reply) replica is supposed to start from a new line.
Compose a dialogue onRussian is not the easiest task. The most difficult case can be called the case when the words of the author are placed inside the replica. This grammatical construction is most often accompanied by errors, especially among novice authors. This is due to a large number of options, the main ones are two: the sentence is broken by the words of the author or these same words are placed between adjacent sentences.
In both cases, the beginning of the replica is exactly the same as in the example with the words of the author after it (dash, space, the replica itself, again a space, dash, again a space and the author's words written with a small letters). The next part is already different. If the words of the author are intended to be placed inside one whole sentence, after these words a comma is required and the further remark continues with a small letter after the dash. If it is decided to place the words of the author between two separate sentences, the first of them should end with a full stop. And after the indispensable dash, the next replica is written with a capital letter.
Other occasions
Sometimes there is a variant (rarely enough) when there are two attributive verbs in the words of the author. In the same way, they can be located before or after the replica, and all together is a single structure, written on a separate line. In this case, the second part of direct speech begins with a colon and a dash.
In works of literature, sometimes you can find constructions even more complicated, but we will not delve into them now.
Having mastered the basic rules of construction, you cansimilarly, for example, make up a dialogue in English, etc.
A little about the content
Let's move from punctuation directly to the content of the dialogues. The advice of experienced writers is to minimize both the lines and the words of the author. You should remove all unnecessary descriptions and phrases that do not carry any useful information, as well as unnecessary embellishments (this applies not only to dialogue). Of course, the final choice is up to the author. It is important that at the same time he does not change the sense of proportion.
Excessively long continuous dialogues are highly discouraged. This unnecessarily drags out the story. After all, it is understood that the characters are talking in real time, and the plot of the work as a whole must develop much faster. If a lengthy dialogue is necessary, it should be diluted with a description of the emotions of the characters and any accompanying actions.
Phrases that do not carry information useful for the development of the plot can clog any dialogue. It should sound as natural as possible. It is highly discouraged to use complex sentences or those expressions that are never found in colloquial speech (of course, if the author's intention does not imply otherwise).
How to test yourself
The easiest way to control the naturalness of the composed replicas is by reading the dialogue aloud. All the extra long pieces, along with pretentious words, will inevitably cut the ear. At the same time, it is much more difficult to check their presence with the eyes. This rule applies to any text in the same way, not just dialogue.
Another common mistake is the excess of attributive words or the monotony of their use. If possible, you should remove the maximum of author's comments such as: he said, she answered, etc. Definitely, this should be done in cases where it is already clear which of the characters the line belongs to.
Attributive verbs should not be repeated, their sameness hurts the ear. Sometimes you can replace them with phrases describing the actions of the characters, followed by a replica. The Russian language has a huge number of synonyms for the verb said, painted in a variety of emotional shades.
Don't mix attribution with body text. In the absence of an attributive (or substitute) word, the dialogue turns into plain text and is formatted separately from the replica.
Adhering to the rules we have outlined, you can easily compose any dialogue.
