Dig! Dig! Dig! Or Four Steps to Getting Great Quotes

Post date: Jan 12, 2016 7:04:15 PM

When interviewing someone for a story, you will always get great quotes if you do the following:

1. Look for the unusual

2. Seek comments that play on the readers’ emotions.

3. Remember if anyone else can say it, it is probably not a great quote.

4. Keep digging until you get the type of quote you’re seeking.

There are some activities yearbooks, and sometimes newspapers, have to cover year after year. It is imperative that you look for the unusual each year, so you don’t repeat the same information over and over. For example, it is not a great quote from the Prom Queen when she says, “I was just so excited. It was the most thrilling moment of my life.” If anyone else can say it, it is not a good quote. That is not a comment that will play on emotions, and it certainly isn’t unusual.

Keep digging!

There’s nothing wrong about asking the queen if there was anything unusual that happened during Prom besides learning of her honor. You might be surprised with the response.

“Watson Keightley, my date, had made arrangements for us to go out to eat with other couples before the dance. I didn’t know he meant we would be eating in the back of a U-Haul truck. He had rented one for the evening, and he hired a chauffeur. There were eight of us who had a four-course meal served to us in the back of the truck as we drove around town. The driver hit a bump a couple of times and food slid to the floor. I got barbecue on my shoes, so I had to go home and change shoes. We had a blast, and it is certainly a memory we will never forget.”

This is a quote that not just anyone could say. It is also unusual, and it plays on emotions.

That is certainly better than “It was the most thrilling moment of my life.” The quote is a bit lengthy, but sometimes it takes a long quote to really accomplish the four steps to getting good quotes.

The key, however, is to dig, dig, dig! Sometimes you may have to interview someone else if the first person you interview doesn’t have much to say.

A few years ago at one school there was a serious problem with cockroaches infiltrating the building. The principal told students to clean out their lockers before spring break and take everything home with them as the custodial staff was going to fumigate the school to try to eliminate the cockroaches while everyone was on vacation.

Both the newspaper and the yearbook covered this story. The reporter for the newspaper asked a student if he had ever killed a cockroach. The response he got was “Yes, I killed one once.”

The reporter committed the cardinal sin of interviewing. You should never ask a question that can be answered “yes” or “no.”

The editor wrote “Dig” on the reporter’s paper. The reporter decided to interview someone else. This time, he expanded his question. He asked, “Have you ever killed a cockroach, and if you have, how? Asking how or why almost always results in better responses, and it did in this case.

“I saw a two-incher approaching my locker once,” the student said, “and I had an industrial strength rubber band in my hand. I drew it back and shot the sucker square in the head, and it’s insides squirted all over the place.”

That’s certainly a quote that will get a reaction from the reader. It is unusual, and not just anyone could say it. The reporter did his digging until he came up with a great response. Quotes like this keep a publication from being boring. If you dig for those quotes that play on emotions, that deal with the unusual and that not just anyone can say, you will have readers wanting more.

Assignments:

1. Go through the last issue of your publication. Circle all the quotes which you think fit the four steps above. Then put an X across all those that don’t. How many quotes fit each category? If you don’t have more circles than quotes, you need to dig, dig, dig!

2. Select a topic you’re interested in such as peer pressure, dreams, or driving. Interview students and faculty members. Get at least three dynamic quotes that you think fit the criteria of this lesson and share them with the class.