Radio and TV JournalismRTV 303lecture 6

Mrs. Sarah Amin

Lecture Objectives

The student should be able to:

Discuss what quotes are, why they are necessary and how to use them properly.

What’s a quote?

A quote is the written form of the words which people have spoken .

Occasionally it will also apply to words they have written down, perhaps in a book or a press release. In print journalism, quotes are shown surrounded by quotation marks, either single (‘)

or double.)"( These are sometimes called inverted commas.

The alternative to using a quote is to rewrite the sentence into what we call reported speech .

Why use quotes?There are three main reasons why you should use

quotes in print journalism:1-If you repeat the exact words which people

themselves used you will reduce the risk of misreporting what they say.

2-When we give a person's exact words our readers can see both the ideas and the way they were presented and show your story is reliable.

3-People often use lively language when they speak. Quotes allow you to put that lively language directly into your story.

Cont.

• In print we hear people's voices through quotes, in broadcasting the voices are heard in the form of audio or actuality.

Radio journalists should avoid quotes altogether, and television journalists should use them as graphics on the screen.

When to use quotes?• Never start a news story with a quote

1-The most important reason for not starting a story with a quote is that a quote itself seldom

shows the news value of your story .2-Starting a news story with a quote produces

awkward punctuation. By putting words inside quotation marks, you give readers an extra obstacle to overcome just at the time when you are trying to grab their attention.

3-Beginning with a quote also means that your readers see the quote before they know who has said it. How can they judge the importance of the

quote without knowing the speaker ?

Cont.

• A quote can often be most effective following straight after a hard news intro.

• See how effective a short quote becomes when it follows a short, sharp intro:

• The Minister for Finance, Mr Joe Wau, yesterday attacked laziness in the public service."Government employees must get off their backsides and work," he told a lunchtime meeting of senior department heads.

Quotes in features• One of the few places where a journalist can

occasionally begin a story with a quote is in writing features.

• The most common use is what one might call the sound effect quote, where the quotation is used to create an atmosphere for the feature. The following introduction to a feature begins with a quote especially to grab the reader's attention:

• "Atten...shun!"The drill sergeant's voice rings out over the new Bomana parade ground.

Writing quotes• Punctuation• Most newspapers adopt a standard style

when punctuating. Two simple phrases will act as a reminder of how to punctuate quotes. (For simplicity, we use the term 'tag' for the attribution of the person who said the words and 'caps' as a short form for 'capital letters'.)

Cont.

• When the attribution (the tag) is at the beginning of the quotation, the order is:

TAG, COLON, QUOTES, CAPS. • Look at the following sentence:

He said: "It is not something I expected."• See how the punctuation follows our rule:• He said(tag) :(colon) "(quotes) I(caps)t ...

Cont.

• When the tag is at the end of the quotation, the order is:

COMMA, QUOTES, TAG, POINT• as in the following sentence:

"It is not something I expected," he said.• Again, we can see the pattern in the sentence:• ... expected,(comma) "(quotes) he said (tag).

(point)

Cont.• Notice that full stops (points), commas,

question marks and exclamation marks always go inside the quotes.

• When you have a quote within a quote, use a single inverted comma for the inside quotation. If both end in the same place, put the comma, full stop or similar punctuation mark within the single inverted comma:Sgt Ovea said: "I told him, `You are your own

worst enemy.'"

• Whenever you introduce a new speaker, put the tag before the quote, giving the speaker's title as well, or the reader will assume that the first speaker is still being quoted:

WRONG:Businessman Mr Tom Avua said that trade was lower than last year. "I may have to sell my home to pay off the outstanding debts to the bank," said his partner, Mr Michael Mu.

Cont.

RIGHT:Businessman Mr Tom Avua said that trade was lower than last year. His partner, Mr Michael Mu, added: "I may have to sell my home to pay off the

outstanding debts to the bank".

Cont.• RIGHT:

"It is a load of rubbish," said Mr Peter Kuman, vice-president of the Retail Traders Association and its regional representative on the PNG Chamber of Commerce.

• WRONG:"It is a load of rubbish," Mr Peter Kuman, vice-president of the Retail Traders Association and its regional representative on the PNG Chamber of Commerce, said.

Partial quotes• These are quotes which do not make full

sentences.• There is seldom any excuse for using partial

quotes, whether it is in an intro or in the main body of the story. The main exception is when the words you are quoting are slang, such as "dead loss", "the bee's knees", "Star Wars" or "junket"

Cont.

As in the following example:

The Prime Minister Mr Galea yesterday defended his European tour, saying it was not

a "junket."

Incomplete quotes• They are slightly different to partial quotes.

They are full sentence quotes with some words left out.

• But they should not be done because you failed to make a note of the whole sentence, only if the part you want to cut is either insignificant or unconnected. You should type three dots (called ellipses) in place of the missing word or phrase.

Example

• "Carelessness, as many people before me have argued, is the curse of clear writing," he said.

• so we rewrite it as:• "Carelessness ... is the curse of clear writing,"

he said.

Scare quotes

• Scare quotes are words or short phrases which are placed between quotation marks when they really do not belong. Usually, the writer is trying to add stress to the words or to suggest something other than their obvious meaning.

Scare quotes are usually unnecessary and should only be used if you are confident they are required.

Reasons behind scare quotes• The simplest reason for scare quotes is to add

emphasis. In news reporting, however, this usage can cause confusion or be misleading. Unless the words are actually quotes which can be attributed to a person, avoid scare quotes for emphasis.

• A more common use of the scare quote is often used to suggest disbelief or actual disagreement with the words as they are being used.

Cont.

• Finally, the use of quotation marks to define a single word or phrase linguistically is justified in certain circumstances when the use and meaning are clear. For example:

Example: The Minister said he had been misunderstood by some people who thought he had said 'weather' when, in fact, he had said 'whether'.

Example

• BAD:The priest said he would "never" marry a divorced person in his church.

• BETTER:The priest stressed that he would never marry a divorced person in his church.orThe priest said: "I will never marry a divorced person in my church."

TO SUMMARISE:

• Quotes are an important tool for print journalists, but they should never be used on radio, and only as text on television.

• Never begin a news story with a quote.• Try and keep a balance between quotes and

other sentences.• Take care when punctuating quotes.• Avoid partial or incomplete quotes unless they

are necessary.