Tuesday, March 8, 2016

Formatting Text from a Sign


I have a dialog heavy scene in which one of the characters walks up to a door marked with a sign. I wrote



A warning etched under the sign read “Electromagnetics strictly prohibited.”



Is it correct to quote the text of the sign, even though there is no speaker? If not, should the text otherwise be offset from normal text? I'm already using italics to indicate internal dialog.



Answer



I think what you have in your example is fine. Quotes don't have to be strictly spoken dialog. You've indicated in narration twice that it's written on the sign. The reader will understand.



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