What punctuation to use when a character is writing something down?

Question

I'm trying my hand at editing a friends work, and I've got a little stumped.

They wrote the following:

'Thinks he's the smartest one in the room,' Henry wrote on a piece of paper.

(For context, when they write dialogue they use double quotation marks.)

So, on a piece of paper, Henry has written the words: "Thinks he's the smartest one in the room."

My initial thought was that the single quotation marks are incorrect. (Though I might be wrong about this.) I can only think of two alternative ways to go, and I don't know which of these three options would be correct:

1. Single quotation marks (as my friend has):

   'Thinks he's the smartest one in the room,' Henry wrote on a piece of paper.

2. Double quotation marks:

   "Thinks he's the smartest one in the room," Henry wrote on a piece of paper.

3. Italics:

   Thinks he's the smartest one in the room, Henry wrote on a piece of paper.

Generally, I'd think to use double quotation marks for quoting words. However, I feel that that would make it look and read too much like dialogue--especially because there's a conversation happening around the line.

A reason I'm leaning towards the italics is because, even though "Thinks he's the smartest one in the room" is a quote, it's also a thought that Henry's having. If it was "Henry thought" instead of "Henry wrote" then I'd know to use italics.

So, am I to use single quotes, double quotes, or italics in this situation? Or something else? Or is it just a matter of style?

Answer 1

I too would recommend italics. Also, I'd avoiding single quotes as I find things can get a bit confusing if there are apostrophes in the material.

Answer 2

It's usually just a matter of style. I'd use italics, but it honestly doesn't matter (but you shouldn't use single quotation marks like that in the US, that's normally done in Britain).
One example I have is with thoughts. Some use italics, some use quotes, and some write it like:

I hate this, thought Bob.

It's all just a matter of style.