Here is an excerpt, just checking if this is the proper way of doing it. This is at the start of the story, so I want to lead with the words. Either: The Darkest Hour is Upon Us. John looked at the sign that hung above the otherwise friendly bar, and wondered who would put such an ominous phrase there. Or, "The Darkest Hour is Upon Us." John looked at the sign that hung above the otherwise friendly bar, and wondered who would put such an ominous phrase there. Part of the trouble with this is how difficult it is to express the concept so google would get it. Thanks for any help.
I'm sorry I can't help in saying which one is correct, but I can say that I personally prefer the first one. My gut tells me the second one is the 'correct' way of putting it, though.
Put The Darkest Hour is Upon Us in italics. Personally, I would switch the sentence around like this. John looked at the sign that hung above the bar. It said,The Darkest Hour is Upon Us, and he wondered who would put such an ominous phrase there. Never use quotation marks for words that are aren't being spoken. For showing text from a sign,book,etc, put it in italics.
My personal take would be: John looked at the sign above the otherwise friendly bar. The Darkest Hour is Upon Us, he read. Who would put such an ominous phrase there? I'd put it in that order because it seems most normal for a person to first notice something, then examine it, and then react to it.
since you are actually quoting what the sign says, it goes in " "... there's no good reason to put it in italics... it's the same as when you are writing words that a character is reading in a book or a letter... if it's short, it goes in " " and if long, it's inserted as a block indent...
