Quotes and paraphrases

I'm beginning to notice a trend on quotes and paraphrases. Today's blog post will touch a bit on when to quote and when to paraphrase, but after I tell you how awesome you guys are.

PRAISE


A shout out to Chris Miller for putting together the tobacco recommendations story. It was well written and informative. Students care about this issue and getting that information to them is paramount. What's even better? The story had an infobox! Great stuff.

Ajinur Setiwaldi had an interesting story about a floundering class in the aviation department. Finding stories about low enrollment courses are great stories. Think about this, if this class disappears, does the professor risk losing their job, do the students risk wasting their time? I wish the story went into greater detail, but it was a great start nonetheless.

WEAK-ish NEWS CONTENT


Besides the tobacco story, the main, full-length stories in the newspaper were pretty weak. Two profiles? You guys can do better than that. Think of this (something I'm going to steal from my class today), News is something you wanted to know seconds ago, right now. Yes, profiles are important, but we need to make sure we are asking the important questions too.

The retention rate story took a lot of information given by the university at face value. It may be accurate, but I would much rather you guys quote reports rather than people when it comes to statistical information (a point I will touch in more in a few graphs). The story about retention rate is interesting, but there is more to it than the university is doing alright, did you know our first-year retention rate is lower than the year 2000?

Sure, we increased the rate a little bit from the last data set, but we still aren't as high as we used to be. Having this statistical information ready would have produced better questions and could have even changed the entire nature of the story. Make sure you are arming yourself with as much information as possible to create the best story possible. If you don't check it or know about it before you go into an interview, sources could lie to your face and you would never know (not saying that happened here, but this is a teachable moment).

QUOTES AND PARAPHRASES


This is easy, ladies and gentleman. If you see statistical information in a press release, find the source of that information and attribute it to that source. The press release didn't just come up with the information. You want to make sure the press release is accurate because, well, a person wrote that release and we are all capable of mistakes.

Also, don't quote statistics from a source. If they start dropping numbers, ask them where they got them. Double check those numbers. Be skeptical. If they can't provide the source of their information, how did they come up with it in the first place?

When it comes to quotes, they are the human element of a story. Quotes should be emotional and unique. If someone says, "I like it because it's great." Don't quote that. How lame is that? People don't say it, but EVERYONE is far more interesting than that. Get emotion and uniqueness in your quotes and your story will benefit greatly.

Never, never quote press releases. If you have to use a large section of a press release, paraphrase that bad boy. Press releases are boring. Have you read an awesome press release? See? They are boring and nobody cares what is quoted in them. Paraphrase.

FINAL CONCLUSION


Everyone seems to be learning quickly. Yet, there is still a lot to learn. Hell, even I'm learning, and I've been here forever (not really forever, but damn it feels like a long time). Mastering the use of quotes and paraphrases can be difficult, but if you follow some of the tips above, you will be on the right path.

Keep up the great work! I'm loving this semester more and more every day.