In a paragraph, how do you place speech?

revolution-melody

In a paragraph, are you supposed to go to another line and do the speech, or do you leave the speech in the same line?

for example;

I wanted to eat the apple. "Can I eat the apple?" I asked. " Sure, go ahead," she said.

Is that okay in a paragraph, or is it wrong?

listentmw

A) For future reference, what your referring to is called "dialogue"

The first character's dialogue begins in the same paragraph (that you've been writing in), or in a new paragraph...whatever you want. When a new person begins talking, you must begin another paragraph for their dialogue.

The Golden Rule: start a new paragraph for every new speaker.

If you pick up any novel you should be able to find an example of this. The example you posted would be written:

I wanted to eat the apple. "Can I eat the apple?" I asked.

"Sure, go ahead, " she said.

Edit: Sorry, the formatting didn't work out above...both of those lines should be tabbed-in, like a new paragraph would be.

blahblah

No. You start a new paragraph for each speaker.

I wanted to eat the apple.

"Can I eat the apple?" I asked.

"Sure, go ahead," she said.

But you can continue on the same line if you don't change speakers.

I wanted to eat the apple.

"Can I eat the apple?" I asked. The apple was bright green and looked really good. "I'm hungry."

"Sure, go ahead," she said. She watched while I picked up the apple. "I just bought it."