The question now is, how to quote nicely. Frankly, I’m not a huge fan of a news writing style that starts a story with a quote, especially if the quote holds no special meaning other than to put a sentence in between two quotation marks. Take for instance the story, below:
KUALA LUMPUR: “I’m grateful that my son is back in time for the Hari Raya. I thank the government for the effort to release my son,” said housewife Soandso, 45, when met at her home in Kampung Pinang Sebatang, near here today.
The story above is of course fictional but the news writing style is not.
I don’t know. Maybe it’s just me but I hate the intro. It drives me up the wall, firstly because I’m not a big fan of a quotation intro, and secondly, the quote itself is not a first sentence material.
But I can accept the style in the name of variety, so long as the quotes are special and unique that paraphrasing them into indirect quotations would diminish the meaning or their dramatic impact.
Below are examples of well-quoted phrases, taken from a New York Times article titled “Obama Expands Economic Plans”:
“At a time when the ups and downs of the stock market have rarely been so unpredictable and dramatic,” Mr. Obama said, “we also need to give families and retirees more flexibility and security when it comes to their retirement savings.” [...]
“These are hard times, my friends,” Mr. McCain said. “Our economy is in crisis. Financial markets are collapsing. Credit is drying up. Your savings are in danger and your retirement is at risk. Jobs are disappearing.” [...]
Mr. Obama reprimanded his audience when people started jeering at the mention of Mr. McCain’s name, declaring: “We don’t need that. We just need to vote.” [...]
During his remarks here, Mr. Obama gently scolded all Americans for “living beyond their means — from Wall Street to Washington to even some on Main Street.”
As you might already noticed, the quotes above are special that they must be presented in their raw unadulterated form that you cannot paraphrase them without diminishing their impact.
