Quick Question About Capitalization

stardustx said:

I have this sentence:

A little voice inside her said, No.

My question is, should the "no" be capitalized or lowercase? Or does it matter? Is it just a style choice?

Thanks!

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In my opinion, you have it right. You have it capitalized as an italicized thought.

Here are some examples of other cases:

She said no to his proposal. (No caps and no quotation marks according to CMoS)

When asked to move, he stated clearly, "No." (This for spoken dialog)

stardustx said:

I have this sentence:

A little voice inside her said, No.

My question is, should the "no" be capitalized or lowercase? Or does it matter? Is it just a style choice?

Thanks!

Click to expand...

I think in this case, it wouldn't be capitalized:
A little voice inside her said "no" to the thought of rock climbing.

Auteur's version would work, too:

A little voice inside her said no. (This agrees CMoS's advice on internal yes and no, and also no quotes as the little voice is silent.)

I can see this working as well: A little voice inside her said no.