Module 2 Transcript 8:

Language Focus: Quoting Sources and Reporting

Verbs
Hello, welcome to this language focus video on quoting sources and reporting verbs. In this video, we'll talk about
why journalists use quotes, and we'll also talk about different verbs journalists use when reporting a quote. A
quote is a group of words or sentences that someone else says. Journalists use quotes often in the news to report
on an interview. There are two ways to report on something someone said in an interview, quotations and
reported speech. In this video, we'll just cover quotations, why they are used, and how to use reporting verbs with
quotations.

Let's first talk about why quotes are used in the news. Journalists use quotes for two general reasons, to show
what a person said and how they said it. The first reason is for accuracy. For example, let's say the chief of police
said, “crime is down by two-thirds from this time last year. This is the lowest crime rate in the history of the city.”
Now, let's say a journalist reported, “the chief of police said crime was down.” This doesn't give all the information
from the original statement. We know the main idea of the statement. That the crime rate is low, but we don't
know by how much or what that rate means related to the city's history of crime. So, by using a quote, journalists
can accurately report what other people say.

The second reason that journalists use quotes is because a quote tells you how they said it. In our example with
the chief of police, the use of the superlative, “the lowest”, and the historical crime fact of the city tells the listener
that this is a huge achievement. The chief of police is emphasizing the statistic's importance. So, if the journalist
simply says that the chief of police reported that the crime was down, we miss out on this emphasis.

Now that we know why a journalist uses quotes, let's talk about one aspect of quoting, the reporting verb. A quote
is introduced by identifying the speaker and a reporting verb, which is an action word that lets the reader know
how something was said. In our first example, the reporting verb was “said”. This is the most basic reporting verb.
If a journalist only uses the verb “said” when reporting quotes, the article might become a little boring: he said, she
said, they said, we said. A good writer doesn't use the same words over and over again.

Let's look at a different example of reporting verbs. A German official warned, ”resources for refugees are limited.“
In this example, the author used a strong reporting verb, “warned”, rather than a neutral verb like “said”. By using
“warned” the readers know that the official thinks that refugees might face problems if they come to Germany.

Now let's take a look at other reporting verbs. Reporting verbs have slight differences in meaning. Here are some
examples, “asked”, “stated”, “said”, “reported”. These are neutral reporting verbs. When something is neutral, it
doesn't have a positive or a negative meaning. “Urged”, “emphasized”, “warned”, “advised”, these are used to
express a strong opinion. “Warned” and “advised” are used to express a strong opinion about an action the
speaker wants the audience to take. As you can see it's important for journalists to pick the right reporting verb
when including a quote in their article.

To summarize quotes are important parts of many articles. Journalists use quotes to show the exact words of the
original speaker, and also to show how it was said. It's important to use a variety of reporting verbs. In the next
game, pick the right reporting verb for each sentence.

© 2021 “Transcript – Language Focus: Quoting Sources and Reporting Verbs” by The University of
Pennsylvania. “Transcript – Language Focus: Quoting Sources and Reporting Verbs” for the Online
Professional English Network (OPEN), sponsored by the U.S. Department of State with funding
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