The document provides style guidelines for writing quotes and attribution in news stories. It recommends using direct quotes to add voice and credibility but to paraphrase mundane information. Quotes should be used selectively to highlight memorable statements. Guidance is given on punctuation for quotes, introducing speakers, continuing lengthy quotes across paragraphs, and referencing speakers on subsequent mentions. Number style, date formatting, capitalization rules, and sentence structure tips are also outlined.

1. Quotes & Style
KEEPING IT SUPER SIMPLE

2. Why quote sources?
 Quotes give stories voice, texture, intrigue.
 Quoting expert sources or participants in a “story”
gives you increased credibility.
 Use quotes skillfully, and your story will write
itself.

3. Direct quotes and paraphrases
 A direct quote captures exactly what a source said.
Use quotation marks.
 A paraphrase captures the key ideas from a source
as translated by reporter. No quotation marks, but
still use a speech tag or attribution.

4. Avoid lackluster quotes
 Quote the memorable. Paraphrase the mundane.
 People say boring things, explaining processes or
gabbing about the time the bake sale starts.
Paraphrase those comments in your story. Quote the
memorable sound bite, the well-stated bit, the clever
or telling remark.

5. Where’s the sexy quote??
The hospital opened in 1971, and it was purchased by
E.Vile Corporation in 2015. They did some renovations.
I think a few owners tried to run it in the 1980s but I
don’t really know. Now the damn place is run by a
bunch of unlicensed pumpkins. You can run a state-of-
the-art hospital and get lots of publicity. But no one
gives a shit about the patients.

6. Use paraphrase to introduce speaker
A common strategy: Use a paraphrase to introduce speaker and set
up a direct quote. Like this:
Vice President of Enrollment Management Jason Meriwether is on the
front lines of the enrollment situation.
“We’ve lost well over 2,000 students in the last four or five years,”
Meriwether said. “It’s a symptom of a few things. We’re graduating
larger classes and our graduation rate has gone up. So that does have
an impact. Part two is from a recruitment standpoint. There have been
a number of things in place that have changed this year to get us to
be a viable recruiting option.”

7. Give quotes a new paragraph
Give a quote its own paragraph. For a quote that’s more than
one sentence long, put speech tag (he said) after first
sentence/independent clause. The quote continues after the
speech tag in the same paragraph.
Biology major Bill Lopez supports Democratic presidential
candidate Tulsi Gabbard. (HIT ENTER HERE.)
“Her ideas are better for college students,” Lopez said. “She’s
also the strongest anti-violence, anti-war candidate.”

8. Punctuation goes inside quote marks
Punctuation goes inside the quotation
marks. Use a period after speech tag.
“Like this,” she said.

9. For second sentence in quote
 The speech tag goes after the first sentence of the
quoted material. A longer quote continues after the
speech tag as its own sentence.
“This is the first sentence of the quote,” she
said. “This is the second sentence. How cool!
The quote keeps going.”

10. More than a paragraph of quote
In the rare case where you’d quote more than a paragraph:
 Speech tag after first sentence.
 Quote continues for rest of paragraph but ends without a
close quote.
 New paragraph has opening quote and closing quote.
 No speech tag in second paragraph.

11. Last name on second reference
Use last name on second reference – and third and
fourth.
Joanne Smith likes oranges best. Smith said she’s
allergic to pears.
“They make me break out in gross juicy hives,” Smith
said.

12. Avoid orphan quotes
 Avoid orphan quotes when possible.
Yucky: He said the election “bores me” and hopes that
“December 2020 rolls around fast” and the elections will be
over.
Better: He said the election bores him and looks
forward to the end of elections.
“December 2020 rolls around fast,” he said.

13. She said. He said. Using speech tags.
 Use “said” for speech tags. It’s invisible.
 The source said interesting and relevant things. He
didn’t shout, utter, mumble, brag, state, intone,
exclaim, laugh, grumble or claim emphatically.
 (Exception: Use “says” for speech tags if you’re
writing in the present tense.)

14. About that present tense
 Keep verb tense consistent.
Make a choice (past or present – said or says) and stick
with it throughout story. For this class, writing all
stories in past tense works just fine.

15. Numbers in Associated Press Style
 AP Style – Numbers
Spell out most numbers between one and nine. After
nine, write 10, 11, 12 until you get to 1 million. Use
decimals in large numbers.
The legislators cut $1.6 billion from the budget.

16. Ages are numbers
 Ages are always numbers. (OK, almost always.)
Lopez is a 30-year-old student who returned to the
university after losing his computer engineering job at
Intel, where he’d worked for six years.
Lopez, 30, is a journalism major.
 Exception: When the numeric age starts a
sentence, spell it out.

17. When to hyphenate ages
 Hyphenate age when it’s an adjective.
Lopez is a 30-year-old student.
He is 30 years old.
He has a 3-year-old daughter.
She is 3 years old.

18. Dates & AP Style
Capitalize but don’t abbreviate days, like Monday, Friday and Sunday.
Several months are abbreviated when used with specific dates
(numeric).
Jan. 3, Feb. 14, Aug. 8, Sept. 11, Oct. 31, Nov. 19, Dec. 12
Spell out these months when used without a specific date.
Valentine’s Day is in February.
Five months are never abbreviated: March, April, May, June and July

19. Using the year with dates
You don’t need to add “2020” to the date if you’re
writing in 2020. Use year only to refer to years other
than this one.
Like this: Americans remember where they were the
morning of Sept. 11, 2001.

20. No capitalization needed for majors
 She was a journalism major.
 He was a psychology major.
 Neither major needs a capital letter in an AP news story.
 If only she had been an English major. Or a Japanese major.
Or a student of the German language. Then you’d need to
capitalize her major, because it’s a proper noun all by itself.

21. Keep sentences short and simple
 Keep sentences short and simple.
A sentence or independent clause has a subject, verb
and object – in that order.
The professor ate artichokes.

22. Use active verbs & sentence structures
 Be wary of linking or state-of-being verbs: am, is was, were, are,
has.
There is a professor who grades harshly but fairly and is appreciated
by students.
Students appreciate a professor who grades harshly but fairly.
 Sentences work best in this order: subject-verb-object.
The professor (subject) graded (verb) papers (object).
Not: The papers were graded by the professor.

23. Why use a helping verb if not needed?
He was checking his messages while the teacher
lectured.
He checked his messages while the teacher lectured.