Quoting sources

This might be a dumb question, but I've noticed some people do it and others who don't. Is it OK to re-order quotes? For instance, can you take a quote from the beginning of an interview and combine it with one from the end? For instance ...

Beginning: "We were out of rhythm. We couldn't get our timing down."
Later: "Their defense came after us, just attack, attack, attack."

Could you turn those two quotes into this:

"Their defense came after us, just attack, attack, attack," Wilson said. "We were out of rhythm. We couldn't get our timing down."

 

No.

 

thread closed. right answer given.

 

Thanks guys, settled an argument.

It's best to use the first quote, speak more about the defense screwing up the offense's timing, and then go ahead and use the second quote, correct?

Now, let me provide a second example, in hopes of keeping the thread open just a few minutes longer. Let's say you have the following example, with two quotes that tie together but some irrelevant crap in-between:

"We had a chance to score, four chances, actually, and couldn't do it. What more can you possibly ask for? We've got to find a way to put that ball into the end zone. You know, some of you guys might remember this, but my son who played here back in, oh, I don't know, 2000, I think, had a game-winning TD run under a similar circumstance. Ran it in from about 10 yards out. Yeah, if I had to call those plays all over again, I would have probably ran the same ones. We just didn't execute."

Can that become ...

"We had a chance to score, four chances, actually, and couldn't do it. What more can you possibly ask for? We've got to find a way to put that ball into the end zone," coach Jerry Smith said. "Yeah, if I had to call those plays all over again, I would have probably ran the same ones. We just didn't execute."

 

ellipses

 

If you want to use the quotes together because they make the point, try something like this:

"We had a chance to score, four chances, actually, and couldn't do it. What more can you possibly ask for? We've got to find a way to put that ball into the end zone."
Later, Smith added, "Yeah, if I had to call those plays all over again, I would have probably ran [or run] the same ones. We just didn't execute."

Or at the very least use an ellipsis to show you removed a part of the quote.

Otherwise, no.

 

Perfect, thanks!

 

You either have to make a new paragraph out of it, use ellipses, or throw in a transition. Most of the time it wouldn't make much difference, but every once in a while you'll have a quote, maybe on something controversial, which could really be misrepresented if you did something like that. Best not get into a habit.

 

Yes, but I would probably do something like this instead:

Coach Jerry Smith probably would call those plays again.
"We had a chance to score, four chances, actually, and couldn't do it," he said. "What more can you possibly ask for? We've got to find a way to put that ball into the end zone."