The Art Of Quoting: There's A Ring To It

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, April, 2001

Writers quote to add creativity, humanity and color to stories; to break up the text and change the pace in articles; and to support points with credible information. Unfortunately, says communications consultant Ann Wylie, too often quotes sound like they were manufactured by a computer, not spoken by a human.

And far too often, quotes are the most boring--not the most interesting--parts of the copy. Wylie offers these simple rules for injecting stories with quotes that will ring in readers' ears. (1) Work hard enough in the interview to bring back stellar quotes. Writers who find themselves defending bad quotes by saying the source was boring need a refresher course on interviewing. (2) Don't use overly long quotes. Usually, one sentence is enough, two are okay and three are too many, says Wylie. (3) Don't use too many quotes. It's hard to maintain a line of thought or a narrative flow if you're constantly trying to squeeze in one more good quote. And perhaps the worst sin of all, overquoting masks the grea t quotes. (4) Never use quotes to convey primary information. (5) Apply the same standards of creativity to quotes that you apply to other material. That means quotes--like the rest of your copy--need to be compelling, concrete and dramatic. A good quote is when someone says something fascinating--something that's funny or unusual or has a ring to it. The good quote might include a twist of phrase, metaphor, description or tiny story.