According to a person ...

Could we get a spoiler alert before you out yourself as Versatile?

 

Fair enough. What you seem to arguing is verifying the accuracy of the source, which I suppose is easier to fake in writing than in person or via phone.

Still, I have interviewed LOTS of people through the years whom I had never met in person at the time (or ever, in some cases). Could I have been speaking with an imposter? I suppose it's possible, although I never did ask "How do I know this is coach Sucker speaking?"

 

I was taught to use "according to" when referring to written documents (i.e., according to an affidavit filed Friday) and to avoid it following quotes because it casts doubt on the speaker's words. Same thing with "claimed."

 

In the future, whenever doing a phone interview, I will ask the subject for the last four digits of his social security number and mother's maiden name in order to verify identity. Hey, that's the very least I get asked for every time my cable shorts out and I have to call the cable company's customer "service" hotline.

 

Or you could just write "said in a phone interview."


Whichever.

 

I did a story that relied mostly upon fans for quotes, and I asked one guy to spell his last name for me, because I'd never heard anything like it.

"C-r-a-p ..."

I stopped him there and asked him to pronounce the full name again. He did.

I actually asked him to show me his driver's license -- because I'd never heard a last name like his and thought he was giving me a fake name.

Sure enough, it checked out, and I found out it was not as rare a name as I'd thought.

C-r-a-p-a-n-z-a-n-o.

 

Craphonso Thorpe doesn't understand why you'd be skeptical.

 

Nastiest e-mail I've gotten was from a coach because I used "according to (him)" in a story. He interpreted it as me not believing him. Came out of left field to me, because my real intent was to give it weight of having come from one of our area's most respected coaches. Oh well.

 

Guess you never can go wrong with "said".

 

We have the last name Crapo in our area. By the way, that's a long 'A' sound.
Also spent part of my childhood in Burlington, Iowa, home of Crapo Park (pronounced like the above).

 

There was once a star running back at one of the area high schools here named Mohammed Shittu.