Double like. I have to do this every year with my writing group when we get newbies. :)

*chuckles* I love this guideline. It helps me a lot. Thanks!

Author's reply:

No, you're right. The single quote mark was a goof.

Well I read the other reviews before I read this and I have to say, I disagree with them when they say that you shouldn’t have posted this here, that it doesn’t belong on fictionpress. I can see why some people might be offended because it does come across as being a little arrogant (I don’t mean to offend nor is that necessarily my opinion). I do like the idea and I think it’s a clever way of teaching that to people. I did notice one little error, though:

“"Why does he keep his opinions to himself?" asked the girl.' “

The little apostrophe after girl shouldn’t be there, should it? There wasn’t another one so there really wasn’t a need for a closing one.

I could not find anything incorrect in this, so I am, unfortunately, going to administer some ego fluff:

Every writer on Fictionpress should read this.

If the reader has visited my profile, she will be aware that I favor open replies to open reviews. Here are two replies:

'...merely a grammar lesson that anyone can learn in school.' Not everyone has learned it. My most frequent corrections concern the punctuation of dialogue. If you haven't noticed any errors, I can only assume you don't review the same stories I do. '...post it on your profile ...' The full table, including dialogue sentences between narrative sentences, is posted on my profile.

'Find a grammar site and enlighten everyone...' It is unlikely that anyone visiting a grammar site needs the lesson. Some '...aspiring fiction writers..' posting here do. '...useful...' Yes, since the hits for this story consistently outnumber the visitors, I assume most people who look at this do find it useful.

This is posted on my profile.

Um.. I'm confused. Isn't this a site for fiction stories? If so, then why did you post this up here? This clearly isn't fiction, but merely a grammar lesson that anyone can learn in school. I get the fact that not everyone writes well, but come on! IF you so desperatley want to remind people of the proper rules of dialogue, post it on your profile or something. Don't post it as a story, seeing as it's not on.

Fantasy? No. Story? No. Suspenseful? No. Enlightening? No. Gripping? No. Plot? No. Point? None. Interest levels? Low, girl, low. I'm not saying it isn't useful, but technically it shouldn't be on a site for stories. Why, I hear you ask? Um, because it's NOT A STORY. IT IS A GRAMMAR LESSON. I'm sorry, but there it is. Find a grammar site and enlighten everyone there with this piece of literature, but please do not post it on a site for aspiring fiction writers, and especially not under fantasy. It's misleading.

Now my little rant is over, you can follow my advice - ah, sorry, constructive criticism. Pip pip.

This is not a fantasy story... then again it isn't a story. Please do not post it on fictionpress.