An em dash – can indicate interrupted speech; elliptic points faltering or unclear speech.

Farmer: A bunch of them, sir. We are the only GREEN PIG FARM in Shiyan. We are the BEST TAXPAYER. We are the sole PIG FARM CONCERNED ABOUT ANIMAL WELFARE. Our pork products are a FAMOUS BRAND IN HUBEI. We are—

Shengliver: Completely awesome! Where can I see the trophies then?

Compare:

“I live at twenty…three, Western…Avenue,” the drunkard said.

“I want to say I love you, but…I…I can’t,” Laura sputtered.

Note the different ways elliptic points are used. 3 points usually occur where language is left out normally in the middle of a sentence.

It was a good thing to have a couple of thousand people … in the palm of one’s hand.

You will find four dots where ellipsis occurs at the end of a sentence. But why?

I sometimes wonder if the hand is not more sensitive to the beauties of sculpture than the eye. … I know that I can feel the heart-throbs of the ancient Greeks in their marble gods and goddesses.

In the above sentence, the first dot is a full stop; the next three dots indicate omitted sentences.

I don’t care about the money, about … . One thing I do care about is the quality of my life.

In the above sentence, the first three dots are for ellipsis; the fourth dot a period.

When you quote someone, their speech is put between a pair of quotation marks.

He asked, “Where are you from?”

“Where are you from?” he asked.

More quotes can occur after words like “he said”. Note the following differences.

“Where are you from?” he asked. “What is your occupation? And what is the purpose of your visit?”

In the above paragraph, more quotes come after “he said”.

“Imperialists,” Chairman Mao said, “are in essence paper tigers.”

In the above paragraph, “Chairman Mao said” breaks a complete sentence into two parts.

Where does the closing quotation mark go, before or after other punctuation marks?

He asked me, “Where have you been?” (This is a normal position.)

Note the following difference between British and American ways of using the closing quotation mark with the full stop.

There are a lot of Chinese communities called “Chinatown.” (American)

There are a lot of Chinese communities called “Chinatown”. (British)

Note that no closing quotation mark appears at the end of the second paragraph because the quote continues into the next paragraph.

“It’s been horrific,” he said.

“Like watching a car crash in slow motion. My son is nearly 16 and I’ve been fighting the council for five years.

“We have a hell of a lot of damage to get over.”