Quotation etiquette is something I wanted to learn more about initially when writing my student profile project, looking back my quotations weren’t nearly as good as the article The Invisible Observer would have them be, even if it’s just suggesting. Level of detail of how approaches differ in journalism and creative writing is very useful, being a Creative Writing major and all.
Strategic accenting really builds the character of a person, and even more so than the writing I am accustomed to journalism requires the reporter to be thoughtful of what words they choose so the person can be fully understood. An example I appreciated in The Missouri Group’s News Reporting and Writing involved a woman asking for a beer, in which a bad way to quote her was shown. I learned by what NOT to do. Either way, the way in which her quotes were presented revealed her laid-back, casual character.
Dialogue makes a subject human in an article, just as much as it can demonize them if quotations are shortened or lengthened to reached the desired effect rather than report the most accurate truth of a situation. If a father and son have a brief, interesting conversation about your story, put that in there rather than just one line prompted by a question.
Source: NR
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