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Topic : In a dialogue, how do you write that a character says a letter? Since I don't know how to make the title less ambiguous, I will explain myself with examples. Example 1: imagine that in a - selfpublishingguru.com

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Since I don't know how to make the title less ambiguous, I will explain myself with examples.

Example 1: imagine that in a dialogue between two mathematicians, one reads aloud the following sentence from a paper:

"The variable x is greater than the variable y."

How would you write his dialog line? That is, complete the following:

"Hey, look at this." He said. "According to this paper, the variable ..."

Example 2: a character spells a word or abbreviation, such as 'TM1'.

I think all the following look awkward inside a dialogue line:

"I liked the TM1 better."
"I liked the T M one better."
"I liked the tee em one better."

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Honestly, I have no problem with writing single letters or numbers in dialogue, particularly if they are acronyms. All the following look fine to me:

"The variable x is greater than the variable y."
"I liked the TM1 better."
"I drive a Mazda 2."
"But there is no MI-6!"
"Captain, the Klingons are at 132 mark 47."
"Captain's log, Stardate 8130.3."

I have seen "Stardate eight one three zero point three," but that looks silly to me.

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