We are now looking at how to use quotes properly when writing your news articles, and how to correctly attribute them, that is how to tell who said what.
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A quote is the written form of the words which people have spoken. Occasionally it will also apply to words they have written down, perhaps in a book or a press release. In print journalism, quotes are shown surrounded by quotation marks, either single (‘) or double ("). These are sometimes called inverted commas- mostly a British English thing, but since we come across material not published in the US, you should be familiar with that term. The alternative to using a quote is to rewrite the sentence into what we call reported speech. We will also discuss how to move between quotes and reported speech.
Attribution is stating who made the quote or gave the information. The most common form of attribution uses the verb to say. Always say who is speaking. Attribution is also called the tag.
Three main reasons:
- If you repeat the exact words which people themselves used you will reduce the risk of misreporting what they say.
- When we give a person's exact words our readers can see both the ideas and the way they were presented.
- People often use lively language when they speak. Quotes allow you to put that lively language directly into your story.
Remember too that, as a journalist, you are simply the channel through which people with something to say speak to people who want to know what they said. The best way of keeping the channel clear is to let people tell things in their own way. One of the golden rules of journalism is: Let people speak for themselves. Use quotes.
In print we hear people's voices through quotes, in broadcasting the voices are heard in the form of audio or actuality.
Never start a news story with a quote
WHY?
The most important reason for not starting a story with a quote is that a quote itself seldom shows the news value of your story. It is your task as a journalist to tell the reader what is news. You should tell them what is new, unusual, interesting or significant about the information you present. Only when you have told them what is news should you use a quote to support your intro.
EXAMPLE:
The Minister for Finance, Mr Joe Wau, yesterday attacked laziness in the public service.
"Government employees must get off their backsides and work," he told a lunchtime meeting of senior department heads.
Quotes in the rest of the story
If you are going to quote a speech or a personal interview, never leave the first quote later than the third or fourth paragraph of the story. If you cannot find a quote strong enough to go that high, you should question the value of covering the speech or doing the interview in the first place.
One of the problems faced by many journalists is that their shorthand - or their memory - is not good enough to get a full and accurate note of what a person says. So they take the easy way out and write everything in reported speech. It is your task to make sure that you get an accurate note of what is said, even to the extent of asking the speaker to repeat it.
How often should you use quotes?
Although quotes bring a story alive, it is still possible to kill a good story by carelessness, particularly over-repetition. It is like smothering a meal with sauce, drowning the taste of the meat. Each quote must earn its place in the story. Do not put in strings of quotes simply because you have them in your notebook.
Alternate quotes and reported speech, choosing those quotes which are especially strong and rewriting in reported speech those which are either too complicated or too long.
Many new journalists are afraid of using quotes because they believe that the language and punctuation is complicated. In fact, there are some simple rules which, if followed, can make quotes as easy to use as any other kind of sentence.
Most newspapers adopt a standard style when punctuating. Two simple phrases will act as a reminder of how to punctuate quotes. (For simplicity, we use the term 'tag' for the attribution of the person who said the words and 'caps' as a shortform for 'capital letters'.)
When the attribution (the tag) is at the beginning of the quotation, the order is:
TAG, COLON, QUOTES, CAPS.
Look at the following sentence:
He said: "It is not something I expected."
See how the punctuation follows our rule:
He said(tag) :(colon) "(quotes) I(caps)t ...
When the tag is at the end of the quotation, the order is:
COMMA, QUOTES, TAG, POINT
as in the following sentence:
"It is not something I expected," he said.
Again, we can see the pattern in the sentence:
... expected,(comma) "(quotes) he said (tag).(point)
Notice that periods / full stops, commas, question marks and exclamation marks always go inside the quotes. When you have a quote within a quote, use a single inverted comma for the inside quotation. If both end in the same place, put the comma, full stop or similar punctuation mark within the single inverted comma:
Sgt Ovea said: "I told him, `You are your own worst enemy.'"
You should always start a new paragraph for a direct quote.
Whenever you introduce a new speaker, put the tag before the quote, giving the speaker's title as well. This is particularly important when you are changing from one speaker to another. If you quote a new speaker and fail to put his tag at the beginning, the reader will assume that the first speaker is still being quoted:
RIGHT
Businessman Mr Tom Avua said that trade was lower than last year.
His partner, Mr Michael Mu, added: "I may have to sell my home to pay off the outstanding debts to the bank."
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WRONG:
Businessman Mr Tom Avua said that trade was lower than last year.
"I may have to sell my home to pay off the outstanding debts to the bank," said his partner, Mr Michael Mu.
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RIGHT:
"It is a load of rubbish," said Mr Peter Kuman, vice-president of the Retail Traders Association and its regional representative on the PNG Chamber of Commerce.
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WRONG:
"It is a load of rubbish," Mr Peter Kuman, vice-president of the Retail Traders Association and its regional representative on the PNG Chamber of Commerce, said.
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Partial and incomplete quotes
Although you may not be able to write fast or make notes in shorthand, you may still have notes of particular phrases the speaker used. This is when you might be tempted to use partial or incomplete quotes. These are quotes which do not make full sentences.
There is seldom any excuse for using partial quotes, whether it is in an intro or in the main body of the story. The main exception is when the words you are quoting are slang, such as "dead loss", "the bee's knees", "Star Wars" or "junket", as in the following example:
The Prime Minister Mr Galea yesterday defended his European tour, saying it was not a "junket"."The trip was very successful, particularly in Germany," he said.
Some bad journalists use quotation marks around words or phrases which they think might be defamatory. They mistakenly believe that, by showing that the words were said by someone else, they themselves will not be sued for defamation. This is not so. If you use defamatory words, you can be sued, whether they were your words or someone else's, no matter they were in quotes.
.Incomplete quotes are slightly different to partial quotes.
Incomplete quotes are full sentence quotes with some words left out. They can be used if it is made clear that you have omitted some words or phrases without altering the essential meaning of the sentence.
"Carelessness ... is the curse of clear writing," he said.
Whether you use a full quote, a partial quote or an incomplete quote, you must not take it out of context. The most common complaint against journalists - after that of misquoting itself - is the accusation that the reporter took the statement out of context.
Scare quotes are words or short phrases which are placed between quotation marks when they really do not belong. Usually, the writer is trying to add stress to the words or to suggest something other than their obvious meaning.
BAD:
The priest said he would "never" marry a divorced person in his church.
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BETTER:
The priest stressed that he would never marry a divorced person in his church.
or
The priest said: "I will never marry a divorced person in my church."
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A more common use of the scare quote is to suggest that the word or phrase should not be taken at face value. It is often used to suggest disbelief or actual disagreement with the words as they are being used.
Quotes are an important tool for print journalists, but they should never be used on radio, and only as text on television.
Never begin a news story with a quote.
Try and keep a balance between quotes and other sentences.
Take care when punctuating quotes.
Avoid partial or incomplete quotes unless they are necessary.
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