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If one character is using sign language and lip reading while the other is speaking normally, how do you represent the lines of the former? Quotations with "he signed" attribution or italics? E.g.

"When did you first feel the pain?" asked the doctor.

Two days ago, signed the patient.

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    Okay, I have to ask. If the doctor is relying on the signer's lip reading ability to be understood, I assume he doesn't understand sign language. So why does patient sign their response? – Joel Shea Jan 16 '12 at 23:38
  • Er, it's the other way around. It's the patient who is lip reading (because the doctor only knows sign language enough to understand a few simple phrases). Some people who use sign language do it habitually even when the other person is not proficient in it. – HNL Jan 17 '12 at 3:15
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    Per both answers, italics is a quick and easy way to do it. But if there's going to be a lot of this type of dialogue, you might consider using a distinctive font for the signed communications. And as a rule use a clarifying verb like "signed, indicated, gestured" for the first one in an interchange whenever it's been several pages since the last one. After that, use non-specific verbs like "suggested, replied, answered" and avoid verbs "said". But you might get away with the occasional "shouted" or similar in a metaphorical sense (perhaps in quotes to alert the reader to what you're doing). – FumbleFingers Jan 18 '12 at 18:03
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    @JoelShea In the actual scene (this is just a dummy) the signing makes a little more sense. The deaf character has no other means to communicate with the other person under the circumstance. I'll take SimCom into consideration, though. – HNL Jan 19 '12 at 3:04
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    @FumbleFingers In my experience, using anything other than a monospaced font with just italics in a manuscript is a good way to annoy the editor! – HNL Jan 19 '12 at 3:06
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Italics make sense when sign is not the language most of the dialogue is in (I think this is a common tactic for "secondary" languages). But if sign is the main language in your piece, I would just put it in quotes like any other dialogue.

I guess the only question I would have for you is what is the main language of the dialogue? If it's sign language, I wouldn't give it second class treatment in italics.

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    The main language versus occasional language point is key. Too many italics will clutter the page visually. – justkt Jan 16 '12 at 18:06
  • The main language is indeed English, or in the case of the actual dialogue that I'm writing, a common interplanetary language (the actual scene is a spaceship captain meeting a large, deaf man with a battle axe) :-) – HNL Jan 17 '12 at 3:37
  • So, I'd look to set your sign language in quote marks, but with some other character that can open and close. Since it's a scifi setting, it's useful in that you might have alien languages that you want the readers to know but not the characters. Think like a subtitled foreign language in a film or tv show. – hszmv Jan 6 at 12:35
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Yes, italics is exactly how I'd do it. Dean Koontz did that in Watchers, as I recall.

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When it comes to actually writing the signer's line, I tend to write them between apostrophes. I find it easier and a little more visually appealing than italics, but still allows the reader to differentiate the two languages. I more commonly save the italicization for internal thoughts.

'I wish I could go to the park.' vs. I wish I could go to the park.

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I find italics to be easier to understand as the reader. It makes it less complicated and can be caught by the eye pretty rapidly and the reader will learn to recognize the person's dialogue by the italics. It's just overall a lot simpler.

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I think it would make the most sense to use the primary language in quotations, because as the previous answer stated, using too many italics would end up making the literature seem cluttered.

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