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Proseminar in Reporting and Writing July 8, 2008
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Proseminar in Reporting and Writing
July 8, 2008
Getting to the Point
Before you write, ask yourself “what is this story about?”
What Makes a Great Quote?
USING QUOTES IN STORIES
• AUTHORITY– Extra punch because of a person’s position– “There’s not a damn thing they can do to save the people
in that house.”
• COLOR– Bring people alive– We all have our own way of saying things– “It’s a mighty thin pancake that don’t have two sides.”
• EMOTION– Usually from lowest level of action– Short and poignant are best– “It isn’t supposed to happen in church.”
• THREE GOOD PLACES TO USE QUOTES– After the lead, before the nut graph– At the end (a quote that looks to the future or sums up the
story)– In the narrative, to create the “you were there” sense or
in an issue piece to underscore “the voice of authority.”
WHERE NOT TO USE A QUOTE– As a lead– Never lead with a quote unless a Pope says, “S---.”– When the quote is boring– When you already said it better
Always puts commas and periods inside the quotation marks.
“There are no exceptions to that rule,” the professor said.
How to Write Quotes
A question mark and other punctuation marks go within the quotation marks if the punctuation refers to the quoted material: otherwise they go outside the quotation marks.
He asked “When does the semester end?”
Who said, “I hope it ends soon”?
Each new speaker must be quoted in a separate paragraph.
“Never place quotes from two speakers in the same paragraph,” Professor George Farrell said.
“Even if it is short?” Janet Rojas asked. “Yes,” Farrell said.
Don’t attribute a single quote more than once. If you have two quoted sentences from the same speaker in the same paragraph, you need only one attribution:
“You must study your Associated Press Stylebook,” the teaching assistant said. “You will have a test Thursday on the material in the first 60 pages.”
“When the quote is two or more sentences in the same paragraph, attribute it after the first sentence,” Jeanne Harnois said. “Don’t make the reader wait until the end of the paragraph to discover who is speaking. That bugs me.”
Attribution in the middle of a quote is acceptable, but not preferable if it interrupts the thought. It may seem artistic, but it slows things down.
“It isn’t the best way,” he said, “to use a direct quote. It is all right if the quote is very long. However, it’s better to put it as the end of a complete sentence.”
DO NOT tack on long explanations for the quote. AVOID:
When asked how he learned about the fire at his apartment complex, he said “I heard the news on TV.”
“I heard the news on TV,” he said when asked how he learned about the fire at his apartment complex.
Limit the use of partial quotes. They are acceptable when the whole quote is cumbersome, but partial quotes make a story choppy. And readers wonder what is missing.
McDonald says he sees the government as “weak and inept” and fraught with major league problems.”
“There is a crisis in our leadership “ said McDonald.
To Clean or Not to Clean?
Who are the stakeholders in cleaning up or changing a quote?
The subjectThe readerThe media outlet
The Quote Diet
1. Take ten percent off the top. Most speech is bloated. Trim the fat, leaving the verbatim message or paraphrase.
2. Raise your quote bar. It's the writer's job to make meaning with the materials collected during the reporting. You decide which quotes convey the information and which are better paraphrased. Quotations, as Kevin Maney of USA Today puts it, should occupy a "place of honor" in a story.
3. Punctuate with quotes: Use quotes to amplify, to drive home a point at the end of a paragraph. Although you may have three typed pages of notes from a national expert, you can end up using just 10 words to punch up the focus of your story.
4. Three little dots. What about ellipses... that indicate that one or more words are omitted? The AP stylebook advises using an ellipsis "to indicate the deletion of one or more words in condensing quotes, texts, and documents" and cautions against deleting words that distort the meaning. I advise very limited use.
“After the storm, we waited and waited…finally we saw a boat on the horizon,” she said
5. Watch out for the echo effect. Notice how many stories contain quotes that echo what you've already written. Avoid:
The mayor said he's pleased with the election results, noting that his victory demonstrates his popularity with the voters. "I'm pleased with the results," said Mayor Foghorn. "It proves my popularity with the voters."
The final way to tell if you have enough quotes and the right ones
LISTEN WHEN YOU READ IT
On the Record? Off the Record?
On the record: The source agrees that all information can be used in a news story and he can be identified as the source of it. The easiest way to establish this understanding is to identify yourself as a reporter and state your purpose for the interview. If you are interviewing someone not accustomed to dealing with reporters you may want to remind the source during the interview that you are quoting him.
Off the record: The information from this source may not be used in print at all. If you can get the information from another source, you may use it, but you may not attribute it to the source who told it to you off the record.
Not for attribution: You may use the information as background, but you may not attribute it to the source who told it to you off the record.
Background: This is similar to “not for attribution.” Some reporters define background as the ability to use the information with a general attribution such as “a city official said.” If you are in doubt, check with your source about how you can identify him.
