I am reading a txt file with StreamReader and it appears to be outputting escape characters. I am using the following code:

using (StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(saveLocation, System.Text.Encoding.UTF8))
{
    string line;
    while ((line = reader.ReadLine()) != null)
    {
        ...
    }
}

When I open the txt file manually the line in question reads value_start "FILE_NAME", but the line value in Visual Studio that gets saved to my data structure is " value_start "FILE_NAME"". I believe the escape characters are being included, but in my research on this topic StreamReader should ignore escape characters.

My file is being written like so:

private static void WriteIndexFile(
     string saveLocation,
     SortedDictionary<string, string> filesToWrite)
  {
     using (StreamWriter writer = new StreamWriter(saveLocation, false, System.Text.Encoding.UTF8))
     {
        writer.WriteLine("cross_ref");
        foreach (KeyValuePair<string, string> kvp in filesToWrite)
        {
           writer.WriteLine($"  file_start "{kvp.Key}"");
           writer.WriteLine($"     filename "{kvp.Value}"");
           writer.WriteLine($"     #modified {File.GetLastWriteTime(kvp.Value).ToString()}");
           writer.WriteLine($"  file_end");
        }
        writer.WriteLine("end_cross_ref");
     }
  }

Is there anything I’m doing wrong when writing or reading my files that would be causing the escape characters to be read?