He said, she said, WHO said?

Audio Transcript Auto-generated

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  Uh huh Who said that?

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  He said that, she said that they both said it,

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  wait a minute, how am I going to keep everything

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  straight? Uh the importance of keeping things straight in your

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  story is compounded by the fact that most of our

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  stories are not action thrillers.

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  Most of our stories are stories about people telling us

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  stuff. They may have witnessed something, they may have participated

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  in something they may have been responsible for.

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  It are affected by it, But mostly they're telling us

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  things and our stories are probably 80 quotes.

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  So the way we handle quotes is very important and

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  the credibility of your story is almost entirely dependent on

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  how well you find your sources, how well you report

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  what they say and how well you put it together.

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  So the credibility of those sources is very important and

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  we have to be very clear about who they are

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  and what they said.

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  So right, every kind of quote we use in our

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  story, whether it's paraphrase direct or partial has to be

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  attributed right down the list.

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  All three kinds of quotes have to be attributed.

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  We can't just let paraphrased remarks hang out there without

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  attribution. We have to attribute everything.

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  Where do we put the attribution?

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  Generally we want to attribute quotes before the quote.

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  So readers will know going in who's talking here.

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  So we don't want to have a lot of quotes

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  that are disembodied.

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  That is we can't really tell who said them.

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  Uh, and we usually want to know ahead of time

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  who is going to be saying this.

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  Now. You might have a surprise quote where you don't

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  want to tell people who's talking until you get there,

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  you'll find as you have different editors that some editors

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  want a lot more attribution than others.

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  Um, you'll just have to deal with that.

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  In many cases, you can have a running attribution.

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  That is you don't need attribution in every paragraph you

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  can say, um, you know, B.

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  J. Explained how the bill came to be a law

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  and then you have three or four paraphrased.

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  Probably if it's a bill becoming a law, it's probably

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  not going to be great for direct quotes, but you

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  might have three or four paraphrased paragraphs coming out of

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  that introduction says, okay, now BJ is gonna tell you

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  a little bit of a story here.

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  So usually we want to have this ahead of time

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  and it can stand up for a couple of paragraphs

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  if we don't have anything in there to intervene or

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  interrupt. Um, usually if a person is saying something, we

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  want to use the word said, we don't want to

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  use any of the 100 or more synonyms for the

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  word said.

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  So many of them have problems and can make our

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  stories seem opinionated or judgmental.

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  Use the words said.

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  It's good almost all the time.

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  Occasionally I might use the word asked or agreed.

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  Agreed can be a good transition word.

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  It means the same thing is said, but it doesn't

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  have a lot of value judgments.

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  The question is, where does the word said go when

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  you're attributing something inside a sentence.

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  For example, now you may have had somebody tell you

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  that the said has to go before or after the

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  quote before or after the source's name.

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  This is not true.

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  This is not true.

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  There is no rule for where said should go.

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  It is not in the dictionary.

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  It is not an AP style is not in any

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  grammar book.

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  You cannot look it up and you cannot rely on

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  a rule to tell you where to put, set.

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  You have to use your brain and here's how I

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  use mine.

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  I start with a simple quote.

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  I'm going to the store, john said, which could boil

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  down to, I'm going to the store.

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  He said very clear, very conversational.

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  And then I build up from there.

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  Um I have to sit very close to the noun.

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  The actor who said the phrase uh to me it

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  sounds a little stuffy to say.

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  I'm going to the store, said he.

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  So I prefer to put said after the person's name.

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  Now this sounds simple, but it's going to be complicated

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  because someday you're going to have a quote with a

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  name with a long title in it.

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  This is an outrage.

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  The Under Secretary and nighttime Assistant for school Cleanliness Jon

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  jones said to me, that's a mess.

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  Said is a mile away from the quote.

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  I would bring said a lot closer to the quote

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  and sort of use it to link the quote to

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  the name makes sense, doesn't it?

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  Um, Another option is you can save that long title

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  for later, but do not believe anybody who tells you

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  that said has to go at the far end of

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  the sentence.

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  There's no reason for that.

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  In fact, it makes your sentence harder to understand right?

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  Sometimes said is not the right word to use.

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  Example. You got it on the internet.

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  I wish you wouldn't wish you'd rather talk to people.

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  But you got it off the internet.

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  A report, a study, something from the Census Bureau of

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  thesis. All these documents can help your story.

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  Uh, they're not interviews.

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  I never want to see a story that's all based

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  on documents.

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  So better to talk to the person who wrote the

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  document than just rely on the document.

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  But if the document is your source documents and computers

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  don't talk in in my world.

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  So we wouldn't say the website said anything uh scary.

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  Um We would say according to the website, the website

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  reported. Uh the thesis noted um things that are less

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  animated than said.

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  I hate it when inanimate objects talk to me and

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  I don't want to put it in my story.

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  So if you have information that's not coming to you

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  from a person speaking, look for another word like according

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  to or posted on something that is a little more

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  accurate. Please thank you.

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  Um Oh this is a huge peeve of mine.

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  Sometimes I'm reading a story and the reporter tells me

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  the same information twice.

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  How does this happen?

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  Here's what's going on.

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  Uh The source tells the reporter something.

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  It's pretty good.

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  It's good enough to be a direct quote.

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  It's interesting.

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  And so what the reporter will do is this is

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  the worst paraphrase, put it in their own words, what

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  the source is going to say and then quote the

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  source saying it.

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  So I get to read it twice.

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  And in fact the source gets to be the last

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  one to say it.

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  Probably they should be the first one to say if

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  the quote is that good example.

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  Uh huh.

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  Uh Mary spent a delightful day in the park and

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  then we have a quote.

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  I spent a delightful day in the park said mary

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  well you just made me read that twice.

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  Pick 11 is sufficient.

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  You don't need to paraphrase and then use it or

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  the other way around.

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  Just tell me one time.

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  Now I think some people use the paraphrase into the

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  same quote is some kind of transition.

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  Probably they don't even need a transition there, but you're

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  just wasting time when you do that last thing.

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  Uh this this really bugs me.

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  I'm reading a story.

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  I just read a quote by somebody was a good

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  quote and then I read another quote by them.

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  But then at the end of the quote I find

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  out it's not buy them at all, it's by somebody

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  else goes like this or mary said she spent a

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  wonderful day at the park.

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  Then we have a quote.

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  It was so nice.

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  Everybody was friendly to each other.

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  Uh there was music in the park.

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  Birds were singing, Children were playing said terry.

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  What I thought mary was talking.

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  Well most readers are going to be a little confused,

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  a little miffed by that.

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  Very few of them will go back and reread the

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  quote and say now wait a minute.

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  Which part did mary sandwich part?

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  Did terry say so, save them some aggravation and just

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  do it one time.

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  Thank you.

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  Mhm.