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How would you punctuate quotes for multiple people talking simultaneously in the same paragraph? I.e.,

They lined up and waited for the last bell of the day and cheered with their tiny voices, "It was nice to meet you, Ms. Homer", "I hope you come again", "You are a nice teacher".

Also, when using a quote mid-speech do you use a period at the end of that speech or a comma; none at all? I.e.,

As I walked away, I could hear several echoes of ‘Bye, Ms. Homer.’ until their voices faded in the distance, no longer heard.

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    Second part of your question: She shrugged. “Why make someone die when he could clap his hands and say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ and be done with it?” (source: inspirationforwriters.com/attributions-dialogue-tags). As for the first, I'd like to know, myself. As I understand it, an action by a new person=new paragraph, and talking is an action. If it's simultaneous, then I'm not sure. I'm not posting this as an answer because it's partial at best.
    – Arie
    Apr 15, 2021 at 15:38
  • Appreciate your input with the second, I decided a comma would be best too. I'm stumped on the first. I know that a new paragraph is traditional but it's more referencing quotes that people have said rather than the people themselves saying it in this context, so a new paragraph for each seems awkward.
    – CopyPort
    Apr 15, 2021 at 16:28

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They lined up and waited for the last bell of the day and cheered with their tiny voices: "It was nice to meet you, Ms Homer", "I hope you come again", "You are a nice teacher".

As I walked away, I could hear several echoes of "Bye, Ms Homer" until their voices faded in the distance, no longer heard.

(The above is in British/Commonwealth English. "Ms" is the norm in BrE, "Ms." in AmE. Commas and full-stops inside quotes for AmE, outside (generally) for BrE.)

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They lined up and waited for the last bell of the day, cheered with their tiny voices and some of the messages were "It was nice to meet you, Ms Homer", "I hope you come again", "You are a nice teacher".

I'm pretty sure this is how you would go about it, anyways, I hope I answered your question!

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I'm pretty sure it would go something like this.

They lined up and waited for the last bell of the day and cheered with their tiny voices, "It was nice to meet you, Ms. Homer," "I hope you come again", and "You are a nice teacher."

And this one -

As I walked away, I could hear several echoes of "Bye, Ms. Homer," until their voices faded in the distance, no longer heard.

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You might go with something like the following.

They lined up and waited for the last bell of the day and cheered with their tiny voices: "It was nice to meet you, Ms Homer." "I hope you come again." "You are a nice teacher."

Because the quotes are examples of their cheers.

I know people have opinions about this, but in American English commas and periods go inside the quotation marks.

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I'm pretty sure you would use a comma at the end of the quote or you would have to capitalise the next word which would give you an entirely separate sentence. By doing this like I have just shown you doesn't look grammatically correct. For two quotations it would look something like this: "I am your father," "How could you do this to me?".

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