July 24, 2003: Issue 64
SIM STYLE & GRAMMAR: Let’s talk quotes, if I can be direct for a minute…
There are two basic kinds of quotes, and it’s important to know the difference.
direct quote: The EXACT words of a speaker or a writer, placed inside quotation marks.
indirect quote: The restatement or paraphrasing of a person’s words, not placed inside quotation marks.
Most well-told stories include direct quotes. Sprinkled in lightly, they add spice; used liberally, they can be the meat and potatoes of a story. It’s the job of a good interviewer to ask questions that elicit good responses, and it’s the job of a good writer to use those responses appropriately in copy.
What a writer CANNOT do is put words into a speaker’s mouth. If the speaker didn’t say it, the writer can’t write it. In other words, if a cheesemaker opines for five minutes about her love of Muenster, but the words “Muenster cheese is my life!” never actually come out of her mouth, a writer who directly quotes her as such is writing fiction. The essence of the quote may be true, but it must be paraphrased in this case.
incorrect: “Muenster cheese is my life!” Brie Romano says.
correct: Muenster cheese is Brie Romano’s life.
There are different schools of thought on how heavily direct quotes can be edited. Our magazines are not publications of record in the same way as, say, The New York Times. And it’s not our intention to make people look bad. In most cases, for us, correcting bad grammar (such as tense problems or basic word choice) is acceptable as long as doing so doesn’t drastically alter a quote.
original quote: “As soon as we come up over the hill and seen the house, we knew it was perfect,” Graham says.
correctly edited: “As soon as we came up over the hill and saw the house, we knew it was perfect,” Graham says.
If clarification is necessary for readers, new or changed words must be inserted in brackets to indicate they aren’t the speaker’s exact words.
original quote:“The fire that leveled it was the best thing that could have happened,” Betty says.
correctly edited: “The fire that leveled [the original house] was the best thing that could have happened,” Betty says.
Some writers record interviews to make sure they get quotes right. If you’re not recording, indicate direct quotes in your interview notes as you write them. That way you won’t have to try to remember later whether something you wrote was the speaker’s exact words. Either way, when in doubt, leave quote marks out.
For more information, see Issue 68.
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