I am trying to improve my grammar. Not having written fiction in a long time has resulted in an abyssmal drop of standard.

Which one is correct? Or are they both wrong?

1) "Stop!" he shouted.
2) "Stop!", he shouted.

~~~~ ~~~~

1) That's the spirit, or so they say.
2) That is the spirit, or so they say.

Is it still alright to use shortform in a non-speech informal sentence? The former reads better, but is it still correct?

~~~~ ~~~~

In what cases, if any, is it alright to start a sentence with, 'Or', 'And', 'But', etc... besides speech?

Cheers.

I believe #1 is right in both circumstances. The exclamation point in the first one eliminates the need for the comma. In the second one, 2 is also technically correct, but there's nothing wrong with #1, it feels more natural, and also, since "That's the spirit" is a cliche, it probably makes more sense for it to be abbreviated anyways.

A grammar teacher would probably disagree with me, but as long as you have a complete sentence, I don't think using "or, and, but" is much of a problem in and of itself. The problem with sentences that begin with those words is that they are almost never complete sentences. So if you have all the parts of a sentence, you should be okay.

I'll echo the lame-duck moose up there. The use of the exclamation point means you don't need the comma. And if you did need the comma, it would go before the quote, not after.

If you're writing formally, #2 is more correct. If you're doing real human dialogue, #1 is more correct. Unless, of course, the speaker is Data from ST:TNG. He never could do contractions...

1 is correct on both counts. In the second one, "That's the spirit" is a saying. "That is the spirit" is not what "they" say, therefore 1 is correct.

Somehow, I knew Illumina would step up on this one... [img]smile.gif[/img]

Am I that predictable? ;)

I remember seeing the topic and thinking, "Oh please, oh please, let there still be some way for me to contribute to this..."

It's not so much that you're predictable, but sometimes, the bait can be just too irresistible... [img]smile.gif[/img]

I suppose an IlluminaTrap(tm) would be very easy to design... Just leave an essay written by a drunken frat guy sitting underneath a box propped up by a stick and I'll come. Of course, now I've given away my one weakness.