Style question for the old-timers

[Mystery_Meat]

I don't mind present tense when talking about someone's philosophy or oft-repeated sentiment

Joey Doe says there's nothing like a little rim action in the morning.

 

[PHINJ]

"Say Say Say" is not a ****ing Beatles song.

 

[OTD]

"he remarked" was a favorite of someone whose copy I used to edit (and who has been ripped on this board before). I changed it to said everytime, and he never figured out why.

Another thing that pisses me off: using "he says" instead of "he said." The same guy used to use "says" for features--how that made it more featurey, I never figured out.

Actually, OTD, my old friend, I'm not against the present tense in certain feature contexts. Not all the time, certainly, but to me it's not black and white.

I understand, and wouldn't blindly change it if it made sense. But in this case, that was how this person defined it as a feature--and it was annoying as hell.

 

[m2spts]

It's like exclamation points!
Bristled, exclaimed, quipped ... no.
It's he said, she said.
Enough said.
Also, the "said" should come as close to the comma close quote (e.g., said M2spts or M2spts said) and not after a name, job title (e.g., Bob Knight, the coach of the Texas Tech basketball team, said.)

 

[Mystery_Meat]

What about interrobangs‽ Can we use them‽

 

[Ike Broflovski]

I'm confused.

Is it, "Blah, blah, blah," said Said.

Or, "Blah, blah, blah," Said said.

 

[Boobie Miles]

A lot of our reporters don't put the attribution in until the end, either. It always reads funny to me. I'll change it if it messes with the flow of the quote and the comment having a natural breaking point.

Which is something else. They'll put four sentences of quote before "Doe said". I was taught to always put the attribution after the first sentence of the quote. Sometimes I'll split a one-sentence quote with the attribution when it feels right to do so.

"Some days," Doe said, "you can't be the lead dog."

So no matter what the quote is you always put the attribution after the first sentence? I think that's typically the way to go but sometimes if it breaks up one thought that is two sentences, I'll put it after the second sentence.

"This was a total team effort. It's great anytime you can have five players score in double figures," coach Jones said. "Now we just need to keep this up going into the tournament."

 

[Mystery_Meat]

A lot of our reporters don't put the attribution in until the end, either. It always reads funny to me. I'll change it if it messes with the flow of the quote and the comment having a natural breaking point.

Which is something else. They'll put four sentences of quote before "Doe said". I was taught to always put the attribution after the first sentence of the quote. Sometimes I'll split a one-sentence quote with the attribution when it feels right to do so.

"Some days," Doe said, "you can't be the lead dog."

So no matter what the quote is you always put the attribution after the first sentence? I think that's typically the way to go but sometimes if it breaks up one thought that is two sentences, I'll put it after the second sentence.

"This was a total team effort. It's great anytime you can have five players score in double figures," coach Jones said. "Now we just need to keep this up going into the tournament."

In that case, I'd be more likely to change the period into a semicolon

"This was a total team effort; it's great any time you can have five players score in double figures," Jones said. "Now we just need to keep this up going into the tournament."

 

[Boobie Miles]

Ok well that was just an example off the top of my head. I'm just asking if that was a hard and fast rule for you?

 

[Mystery_Meat]

Ok well that was just an example off the top of my head. I'm just asking if that was a hard and fast rule for you?

I'd say I probably do it about 90-95 percent of the time. Every once in a while I'll get a second sentence in before the attribution if the first one is short. But for the most part, I go after the first sentence.

 

[Ike Broflovski]

I'd let the quoted person complete one full thought, probably a sentence, before putting "he said" in there. I'd prefer to see it like this:

"This was a total team effort," coach Jones said. "It's great anytime you can have five players score in double figures. Now we just need to keep this up going into the tournament."

I'm not a big fan of this:

"Some days," Doe said, "you can't be the lead dog."

As opposed to this:

"Some days, you can't be the lead dog," Doe said.

I see the first example a lot, maybe too much. It's a device -- sticking "he said" in the middle of the sentence tends to get in the way of a good quote, as if we're trying to point out how profound it is. It doesn't enhance it in any way except if the speaker actually did pause after "some days":

"Some days," Doe said, sighing and shaking his head, "you can't be the lead dog."

But that's rare.

 

[SF_Express]

but putting the attribution in the middle of a sentence is the right thing to do when it's the last sentence of the story, rather than ending on the attribution.