Using quotes

My problem with my example though is you don't even need the damn quote. The guy on my staff seems so scared to write things from observation or fact, that he feels he has to attribute everything.

Now and again an embedded quote is OK, but this guy does it all the time. Over and over. Every story.

 

Not always the case, the lazy writer bit. I've led a column with a quote once, and it worked really well. Not something I'd do regularly, but I think it works on occasion.

 

Yes, they work sometimes, but only on rare occasions.

 

I would almost always tend to agree. There are always exceptions, though. Earlier this year, I covered a game in which the coach came to his post-game presser, announced he was only making a statement and would take no questions, then spent three or for grafs ripping his team.

I ran the whole thing, verbatim. It was too good.

I guess my overall point is that, though rules are usually there for a reason, they are never hard and fast.

 

Separate grafs for quotes are conventions of writing for the wire, which is the style most newspapers follow, because, historically, quotes were easy to trim in the backshop if the copy runs long. Now that almost every newspaper in America is paginated, there's no specific reason to do this anymore.

Generally speaking, a story *is* easier to read when the quotes are in their own grafs. But there's no hard-and-fast rule.

And depending on your circumstance -- features, specifically -- it often works very well to put the quote and introductory thought into the same graf. The example PW used in the thread-starter is an excellent specimen of where it works nicely.

By the way, this is SOP for those of us in the magazine world.

 

I hate the quote-as-separate-graf rule when writing features. I don't even think there's a reason you shouldn't even have quotes from two different people in the same graf, as you sometimes see in long-form, if it works.

 

Can you give an example of this?

 

I just think it's easier to read separate grafs in a newspaper setting. Certainly, in a magazine or longer feature the initial example works pretty well.

 

I see it quite often, but because it's not something I'd make note of, I can't send you five links or something. I just Googled "Gary Smith," because he seemed like the type of guy who'd do it, and this came up:
--
Coach Matthews appeared, screaming at the Screaming Eagles as if they were ... hell, as if they were Tigers. "Get these goddam things off this field now!" The players watched in wonder. The 101st became them, jumping to Matthews's command, clearing tents and moving jeeps to the end of the field. A helicopter levitated so fast that the players looked to see if it even had a pilot in it. "That's how we're gonna practice," somebody said. The Tigers began preparing for strapping Istrouma.
--

Stuff like that.

 

OK, got ya.

That kind of stuff is cool, but young guys writing game stories and features on Podunk High should probably be worrying about getting the basics down before they start trying to emulate Gary Smith.

That's all I'm saying.

 

Oh, I very much agree. (I think my post might have contained some unintended attitude - apologies if so.) That stuff's only for features, and should be done with care.