Exam 9: Using Quotations and Sources in News Stories

One positive aspect of today's celebrity journalism is that readers are almost as interested in the reporter as the interview subject. Thus, you can inject yourself into the story-what you did to obtain the interview, how you felt, etc.

Speech tags are at times inserted within a longer directly quoted sentence or unit of sentences, in part to make them readable.

Both an indirect quote and a summary statement quote require the use of quotation marks.

In a long, running quote, two or three speech tags are often needed to make it clear who is doing the speaking and thus eliminate confusion for your reader.

In interviewing, it is especially important that you understand the meaning of what was being conveyed, the content of what was said, and the context in which it was said because subjects will complain if your quoting has misrepresented their point of view on a particular subject.

Occasionally, an interview subject makes a foolish or controversial statement. When it is printed, they are likely to deny saying the words. What do you do?

Use the question mark inside the quotation marks if the quoted sentence asks a question; use it outside if the quoted material is part of a larger question.

When punctuating direct quotations, always place commas and periods inside quotation marks.

At times it is necessary to put the speech tag before the quotation. When?

Any particular language you take word for word from someone else and use verbatim in your story should be attributed and set off by quotation marks.

At times, an interview subject will ask that something they said not be printed. What should the reporter do?

The success of personal, one-on-one interviews is up to the subject being interviewed; there's little a reporter can do to salvage a "bad" interview.

Typically, you should place the speech tag at the beginning of a quotation, particularly if you have a string of quoted sentences coming paragraph after paragraph.

In analyzing government and corporate documents, remember that a vast quantity of numbers provides a great screen behind which to hide an unpleasant number. Your responsibility as a reporter is not to be fooled, but to study the numbers to see what they tell you.