Using Quotes

Using quotes

This presentation includes materials and examples I’ve accumulated over 20 years. Most of the materials long ago became detached from their sources. I’m not claiming these ideas as my own. I simply can’t trace everything back to the original documents.

Bill Sledzik

Using quotes

When source says it best

“Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest.”

Mark Twain  “What this country needs is dirtier

fingernails and a cleaner mind.”  Winston Churchill

Using quotes

To illustrate a point

“Most of the students we tested couldn’t balance a checkbook or calculate a simple discount offer,” Williamson said.

Using quotes

To add emphasis

 “Two hundred years ago they tossed tea into Boston Harbor over this same kind of government intrusion,” said Allen B. Johnson, president of the Kent Conservative Club. “The time for revolution may be upon us once again.”

Using quotes

To create drama 

“We all felt helpless as we watched the balloon crash to the ground,” Johnson said. “All we had to offer was our prayers.”

“When the car finally stopped spinning, we stepped out – dizzy, but alive and well.”

Using quotes

• To add substance

• Avoid fluff & happy talk

Using quotes

Fluff adds empty words “The ‘Jobs for Smithport’ program is one of the

most aggressive initiatives of this administration,” said County Executive Tim Daly, “and it’s a plan that will truly enhance the quality of people’s lives.”

Using quotes

Substance aids understanding “The ‘Jobs for Smithport’ program is designed

to help young people select careers with long-term earning potential and to pursue those careers right here in their home town,” said Summit County Executive Tim Daly.  

Using quotes

Fluff adds empty words

“In Jones County, we hold our officials to a standard of total integrity and honesty. We can’t tolerate anything short of absolute commitment to public service,” Daly said.

Using quotes

Substance aids understanding

“We’re no longer going tolerate people who seduce public officials with bribes, then call those bribes legitimate campaign contributions,” Daly said. “We intend to prosecute each and every one of them.”

7 Rules for Attribution

1. Use “said” when attributing to a person for direct and indirect quotes.

2. Use “according to” when citing factual info from a non-personal source.

3. Use attribution mid-sentence only at a natural break (between phrases, clauses, or sentences).

“We tried to negotiate a compromise,” Allen said, “but the union wasn’t interested.”

7 Rules for Attribution

4. Attribute statements like “hope” or “believe.”

 NO: He believes the team will win

tomorrow.

YES: He said he believes the team will win tomorrow.

7 Rules for Attribution

5. Attribute early

• Don’t present 2-3 sentences of quotes and leave the reader wondering who is speaking.

• Attribute in the first sentence.

7 Rules for Attribution

6. But don’t attribute up front (for print media)

Lefton said, “We’ll do whatever it takes to protect the interests of students.”

Instead:“We’ll do whatever it takes to protect the

interests of our students,” Lefton said.

7 Rules for Attribution

7. Edit redundancies

 Jones said she was surprised to be chosen for

the writing award. “I was so surprised when they called my name,” she said.

Instead:

Jones said she was surprised to win the writing award. “When they called my name, I couldn’t move. I felt glued to my seat.”

9 Guidelines for Caps & Punctuation

1. The first word in a quotation that is a complete sentence is capitalized, but the first word in partial quotation is not capitalized.

 • He said, “Life is just one darned thing after

another.”

• He called journalism “history in a hurry.”

9 Guidelines for Caps & Punctuation

2. When attribution is placed before a quotation that contains one full sentence, the attribution should be followed by a comma. If the sentence contains two or more sentences, the attribution should be followed by a colon.

 James Thurber said, “It is better to know some of the

questions than all of the answers.”

Mark Twain said: “I apologize for writing a long letter. If I’d had more time, I’d have written a shorter one.”

9 Guidelines for Caps & Punctuation

3. When you place attribution after a quote, use a comma (not a period) after the last word in the quotation.

“He was trying to help somebody,” his wife said.

9 Guidelines for Caps & Punctuation

4. Place the comma or period at the end of a sentence inside the quotation marks.

No exceptions Benjamin Franklin said, “A penny saved

is a penny earned.”

9 Guidelines for Caps & Punctuation

5. Place words of attribution in their normal order, with the subject appearing before the verb.

 “I’ve noticed that everybody who’s for

abortion has already been born,” Ronald Reagan said.

9 Guidelines for Caps & Punctuation

6. Only the quotation—never the attribution—should be placed inside the quotation marks.

 “The motorcycle slid sideways and

skidded about 100 feet,” she said. “The driver was killed.”

9 Guidelines for Caps & Punctuation

7. If a quotation continues for several sentences, all the sentences should be enclosed within a single set of quotation marks; quotation marks don’t have to be placed at the beginning and the end of every sentence.

 The report said: “The land is too expensive.

It’s price doubled in five years.”

9 Guidelines for Caps & Punctuation

8. Divide long quotations into paragraphs, but only at natural breaks—usually changes in topic, however slight.

Place quotation marks at the beginning of a long quotation and at the beginning of every new paragraph.

Place closing quotes only at the end of the quotation—not at the end of each paragraph.

9 Guidelines for Caps & Punctuation

The senator added: “Perhaps the most shocking example of the insensitivity of the Bureau of Indian Affairs is the manner in which boarding school dormitories have been administered.

 “Psychiatrists familiar with the problems of Indian children

have told us that a properly run dormitory is the most crucial aspect of boarding school, particularly at the elementary levels.

“Yet, when a 6-year-old Navajo child enters one of the boarding schools and becomes lonely or homesick, he must seek comfort from an instructional aid who has no training in child guidance and who is responsible for as many as 100 other unhappy children.”

9 Guidelines for Caps & Punctuation

9. When a quotation is enclosed in another quotation, the first is enclosed in double quotation marks, the second in single quotation marks.

 “My breathing was shallow, my heartbeat weak

and my pulse faint” Bean said. “That’s when the doctor told my husband, ‘I think she may die.’”