Signs in narative
(FYI- I'm writing for an American audience.)
| I can't find any guidance on describing signs within a narrative, so I don't know how to punctuate: |
| The faded letters on the door said welcome to Atlas. |
| Should it be: |
| The faded letters on the door said welcome to Atlas. |
| The faded letters on the door said, welcome to Atlas. |
| The faded letters on the door said, Welcome to Atlas. |
| The faded letters on the door said, "Welcome to Atlas." |
| Thank you so much! |
Top answer
I would punctuate it like this: The faded letters on the door said "Welcome to Atlas". The order of the full stop and quote mark at the end is a style choice. It is sometimes said that putting the full stop inside the quotation marks is the "American" style, but actually you see it in British writing too.
- I would punctuate it like this: The faded letters on the door said "Welcome to Atlas".
- The order of the full stop and quote mark at the end is a style choice.
- It is sometimes said that putting the full stop inside the quotation marks is the "American" style, but actually you see it in British writing too.
- " My view is that a comma after "said" is unnecessary, even illogical.
- You could consider using "read" rather than "said".
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I would punctuate it like this:
The faded letters on the door said "Welcome to Atlas".
The order of the full stop and quote mark at the end is a style choice. It is sometimes said that putting the full stop inside the quotation marks is the "American" style, but actually you see it in British writing too. You may prefer to write it as:
The faded letters on the door
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