Remember we talked about quotes a little bit? Here is some additional advice about using quotes from this great web site.
Using Quotes
The best quotes are short and bright. They surprise, shock or amuse. They reveal insights or secrets. They prove points. They allow experts to give perspective, and real people to air grievances. Don't quote simple statements of fact.
Problems to avoid when quoting people -
* Stutter quotes: Saying the same thing twice.
Mayor Bessie Chronopoulous said Tuesday she will seek a second term.
I intend to run for a second term," Chronopoulous said.
* Partial quotes: Often, it's less awkward just to paraphrase.
Weak: Smith said the money was "spent by me" in order to buy "better-looking plants for the office."
Better: Smith said he spent the money on better-looking plants for the office.
* Parenthetical info in quotes
Weak: "We can't get (the concrete barrier) to stay in one place because (La Tourette) keeps driving into it," Smith said.
Better: La Tourette's driving habits appear to be the main obstacle to keeping the concrete barrier from being moved.
"We can't get it to stay in one place because he keeps driving into it," Smith said.
* Junk quotes. Vague quotes. Quotes that say nothing.
* Stacking quotes. Just stringing a bunch of them together rather than constructing a story. You need to add your reporting.
* Weak lead quotes. Empty, boring, vague, repetitive.
* Weak end quotes. Using any old quote just to finish off the story. (Remember - I warned you against this.)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
Thanks for explanations and in my opinion student must use at least 8 quotations in the new article. Also they must be extremely strong and come after the report which belong to the topic of the quote.
Thank you so much for this post. it will be beneficial for us.
I agree to buse and I hope that we all get high grades with the help from you. Thanks mrs. clark this post helped me to understand how to use the quotes.
thanks mrs clark !
i loved the examples of parenthetical info
I also agree that this post is very beneficial for us since quotes form the basis of our article and if we manage to make our quotes well-written, our article will be much better.
Post a Comment