Communities

Writing
Writing
Codidact Meta
Codidact Meta
The Great Outdoors
The Great Outdoors
Photography & Video
Photography & Video
Scientific Speculation
Scientific Speculation
Cooking
Cooking
Electrical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Judaism
Judaism
Languages & Linguistics
Languages & Linguistics
Software Development
Software Development
Mathematics
Mathematics
Christianity
Christianity
Code Golf
Code Golf
Music
Music
Physics
Physics
Linux Systems
Linux Systems
Power Users
Power Users
Tabletop RPGs
Tabletop RPGs
Community Proposals
Community Proposals
tag:snake search within a tag
answers:0 unanswered questions
user:xxxx search by author id
score:0.5 posts with 0.5+ score
"snake oil" exact phrase
votes:4 posts with 4+ votes
created:<1w created < 1 week ago
post_type:xxxx type of post
Search help
Notifications
Mark all as read See all your notifications »
Q&A

Post History

50%
+0 −0
Q&A Referring to people in a book

Refer to people the way you think of them. If you think of him as "Alan," refer to him as Alan. If you think of your Japanese friend Goto Sumiko (where Goto is her last name) as "Goto," then use th...

posted 11y ago by Lauren Ipsum‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

Answer
#4: Attribution notice removed by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-13T12:00:17Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/8368
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T02:58:40Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/8368
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by (deleted user) · 2019-12-08T02:58:40Z (over 4 years ago)
Refer to people the way you think of them. If you think of him as "Alan," refer to him as Alan. If you think of your Japanese friend Goto Sumiko (where Goto is her last name) as "Goto," then use that.

Alternately, if Goto Sumiko goes by "Goto" but you always called her "Sumi Quatro" because you both love the singer Suzy Quatro, then by all means refer to her as Sumi Quatro in the text.

Just be consistent and clear, and identify everyone on first reference so the reader doesn't get lost.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2013-07-10T00:19:31Z (almost 11 years ago)
Original score: 0