Deck 9: Using Quotations and Sources in News Stories

Question 1

An essential problem in writing any news story is finding a way to present statements that people make and documents supply.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

Common knowledge is information your readers could find in a number of general sources because it is commonly known.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

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.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

While anything that appears in quotation marks should ideally be word for word what the person said, it's all right to clean up grammar or tighten the phrasing a bit to make the quotation "read better."

Question 5

How do you decide what should be quoted directly, indirectly or not at all?

Question 6

One advantage of using direct quotes is that they eliminate the possibility of you or your newspaper being sued for libel.

Question 7

Differentiate between an indirect quote and a summary statement quote:

Question 8

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

Question 9

Generally, the preferred attribution in print journalism is the present tense he/she
says, because it gives immediacy to the story. In broadcasting, attribution is in the past
tense he/she said since it is obvious the event has already taken place.

Question 10

The he/she said speech tag, while somewhat boring because it is used repetitively, enables readers to focus on the content of the quoted material rather than its attribution.

Question 11

Information quoted from documents uses the standard "said" or "according to."

Question 12

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.

Question 13

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

Question 14

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.

Question 15

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

Question 16

Begin a new paragraph every time you change speakers.

Question 17

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

Question 18

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.

Question 19

When covering a speech or a news conference, concentrate on reporting what the speaker said and don't be distracted by side issues such as audience reaction or anything unusual.

Question 20

The speech coverage story is one of the easiest to write because it is told chronologically.

Question 21

Whenever possible, lead a speech story with a direct quotation because it is rare that an indirect quotation summary lead can adequately capsulize what was said in the speech.

Question 22

How is the concept/quote format used in writing speech stories?

Question 23

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.

Question 24

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.

Question 25

Experienced news sources have learned to be particularly careful about what they say
during a journalistic interview because they know reporters are not forgiving of
grammatical slips of the tongue or misstatements of facts.

Question 26

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.

Question 27

How is the interview story structured? What information is included?

Question 28

What are two drawbacks of Q&A interviews?

Question 29

Survey stories are easy to write because the science of measuring public opinion is
now so precise. Thus, surveys represent absolute truth, unlike the momentary snapshots
provided by surveys years ago.

Question 30

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.

Question 31

In assembling a news story, you're editing as well as writing. Thus, it is permissible to reorder phrases or sentences so that they better reflect what the speaker said, even though it may not have been said them exactly that way.

Question 32

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?

Question 33

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

Question 34

The essence of journalism is the trust readers have that what they are reading, seeing
or hearing in your writing is the truth. You must honor that trust if you want to have
resspect as a journalist.