News writing

1. A. Maytee Pakdiponpong
Quotes & Attributions in
Newswriting
ENG335 English Through Multimedia
ENG420 English for Digital Global Media
Bachelor of Arts Program in English
Faculty of Communication Arts & Design
Stamford International University

2. Objectives
By the end of the class, you will be able to:
• Understand the importance of quotes and attributions in news stories.
• Justify when to attribute quotes.
• Correctly attribute quotes in news.

3. Quotes in News
• A quote is the written form of the words which people have spoken.
• 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.
• 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.
• Reported Speech
• The Minister for Finance, Mr Joe Wau, yesterday attacked laziness in the public service.
He told a lunchtime meeting of senior department heads that government employees had
to get off their backsides and work.

4. Attribution in a Quote
• Attribution is stating who made the quote or gave the information.
• The most common form of attribution uses the verb to say.
• Always say who is speaking.
• In America, attribution is called the tag.

5. Why Using the Quotes
There are three main reasons why you should use quotes in print journalism:
• reduce the risk of misreporting what they say.
• our readers can see both the ideas and the way they were presented.
• People often use lively language when they speak. Quotes allow you to put
that lively language directly into your story.

6. When to Use the Quotes
Never start a news story with a quote
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.
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.

7. Writing the Quotes (1)
When the attribution (the tag) is at the beginning of the quotation, the order is:
TAG, COLON/COMMA, QUOTES, CAPS.
Look at the following sentences:
He said: "It is not something I expected."
He said, "It is not something I expected."
See how the punctuation follows our rule:
He said(tag) :(colon) "(quotes) I(caps)t ...

8. Writing the Quotes (2)
For a direct quotation of two or more sentences with the attribution at the beginning
of the first sentence, put a colon, not a comma, after the attribution and place the
quotation in double quotation marks.
Look at the following sentence:
She said: “The motorcycle slid sideways and skidded about 100 feet. The driver was
killed.”

9. Writing the Quotes (3)
• If the attribution is in the middle of a sentence or between two sentences, close
the quotation marks before the attribution and reopen them after it. Use commas
to separate the attribution from the quotation.
COMMA, QUOTES, TAG, POINT
“The motorcycle slid sideways,” she said, “and skidded about 100 feet. The driver was
killed.”
“The motorcycle slid sideways and skidded about 100 feet,” she said. “The driver was
killed.”

10. Writing the Quotes (4)
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)

11. Writing the Quotes (5)
Capitalization
The first word in a quotation that is a complete sentence is capitalized, but the first
word in a partial quotation is NOT:

12. Writing the Quotes (6)
• Notice from the example above that it is possible to change the usual "somebody
said" order of the tag to "said somebody" order. This becomes necessary when the
tag has a long identifier, so that you do not separate the verb "said" too far from
the actual quotation:

13. Writing the Quotes (7)
• 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.'"

14. Writing the Quotes (8)
• Three level quotations
• For a passage that has a quotation within a quotation within a quotation, use
double quotation marks to indicate the third level of quotation, as in this example:

15. Writing the Quotes (9)
• Always start a new paragraph for a direct
quote.
• If you have started a quote and continue to
quote in the next paragraph, you do not
need to close the quotes before going on to
the next par, though you should start the
new paragraph with inverted commas.
Mr Raukele said: "It is not something I ever expected
to happen in this country in my lifetime.
"I have to admit that it came as a complete surprise."

16. Writing the Quotes (10)
• Whenever you introduce a new speaker, put the attribution before the quote, giving
the speaker's title as well.
• This is particularly important when you are changing from one speaker to another.
If you quote a new speaker and fail to put his tag at the beginning, the reader will
assume that the first speaker is still being quoted:

17. References
Henshall, P., & Ingram, D. (1991). Chapter 8: Quotes. The News Manual: The professional resources for
journalists and the media.
https://www.thenewsmanual.net/Manuals%20Volume%201/volume1_08.htm
Oxford University Press. (n.d.). Guidelines for Capitalizing and Punctuating Quotations. Writing and
Reporting for the Media 12e Student Resources - Learning Link.
https://global.oup.com/us/companion.websites/9780190200886/student/chapter10/gline/quotatio
n/