Using Quotations and Paraphrasing in Journalistic Writing/Post-Class Activities/Version 3
These activities will build on the skills you learned previously. You will be working with another interview transcript to gain more practice in selecting quotes and paraphrasing material, but will begin by considering how to re-order quotes from an interview to make the resultant article more engaging.
Recall that it is acceptable, and often necessary, to re-order quotes to make them slot in better with the story you are telling; it is very rare that you will receive good, coherent quotes in the order you need when interviewing somebody and/or you might decide to write your story from a different angle based on what your interviewee tells you. The important thing is to make sure you do not misrepresent your source.
Questions 1 and 2 (4 marks each, 8 marks total)
For each of the following two questions, try to first choose the most effective opening to the story (1 mark) before ordering the three related quotes in the most effective way possible (3 marks) to make your story interesting and engaging. Copy and paste the opening to the story you like best, and then copy and paste the quotes in the order you think they should appear.
Q1: For the opening, choose either A or B:
A: Each and every one of us can make a difference when it comes to recycling materials that are harmful to the planet.
That is the message that sprung from a recent research project performed by undergraduate students at the University of British Columbia (UBC).
B: Undergraduate students at the University of British Columbia (UBC) recently performed a research project focusing on recycling.
Their results suggest that everyone can make a big difference in this area as we collectively seek to minimize the damage we cause our planet.
Now select the order that the following three quotes (all taken from the lead researcher, Duncan Galloway) should appear in the story:
1: “It was shocking to note that only one in four people actually put their recyclable containers in green bins.”
2: “Initially, we wanted to quantify the proportion of UBC students who recycle their lunch boxes every day.”
3: “It’s frustrating because it’s so easy to recycle. And if we all did this one simple act, UBC would produce 30,000 tons less garbage every year.”
Q2: For the opening, choose either A or B:
A: Lack of sleep can hinder performance in the classroom, but only if you are really tired.
Students at the University of British Columbia (UBC) found that if they slept for at least six hours each night then their exam performance was not diminished.
B: Performance in the classroom is dependent on the number of hours sleep that you get each night.
However, students from the University of British Columbia (UBC) found that they only started to perform less well if they slept less than six hours each night.
Now select the order that the following three quotes (all taken from lead researcher, Amy Weatherburn) should appear in the story:
1: “If students slept for just five hours a night, they were toast in an exam situation. Yet if they got six hours snooze, they performed as well as if they had much more.”
2: “In my next study, I am going to see whether different mental stimulation before sleep has any effect on exam performance. For example, will it make a difference whether students watch 30 minutes of TV, or if they read class notes before turning out the light?”
3: “What was interesting is that these students said they felt very tired and sluggish if they didn’t get at least six hours sleep.”
Writing an Interesting, Relevant Article
Read the interview transcript entitled ‘Exercise Motivation Interview’. A pdf copy of this is available for you to download here. As you read it, try to think what makes the research interesting, and how you should write your article about it (after all, there is no point writing a boring article or one with little relevance to the research that was done).
The questions that follow will give you more practice in using interview material to select an effective angle to take with your article, as well as in extracting quotations and paraphrasing material.
Question 3 (5 marks)
Consider the five following angles that could be taken when you write an entire article about this research. Try to rank these from most interesting to least interesting. Hint: Imagine reading an article framed entirely around each one of these revelations. This should help you decide which angles are more newsworthy, novel, and interesting.
A: It is important to track motivation changes in follow-up studies to see if people have maintained their commitment to exercise.
B: You must commit more than six months to an exercise regime to change your attitude towards being active.
C: Some people do not enjoy exercise and only do it because they feel they should.
D: A high proportion of Canadians do not exercise.
E: Five different studies were analyzed to assess attitudes to exercise.
Question 4 (3 marks)
Imagine that your editor has asked you to produce a very short article explaining (to the general public) how the researchers measured motivation. Read the first response given by Wendy Rogers in this transcript when she was asked this question. Try to paraphrase how researchers measured motivation. Try to remove all jargon and complex, potentially ambiguous words (1 mark). Do not write more than 60 words (1 mark), but make sure you explain the important elements of the research and do not change the meaning (1 mark).
Question 5 (3 marks)
Now read the second response given by Wendy Rogers in this transcript (when she was asked about how many people were studied, and how they were studied). Try to paraphrase this material and remove all jargon, and complex, potentially ambiguous words (1 mark). Do not write more than 50 words (1 mark), but make sure you explain the important elements of the research and do not change the meaning (1 mark).
Question 6 (1 mark)
Imagine that you have just paraphrased the third and fourth responses given by Wendy Rogers (when asked how she defines long-term exercisers, and how many people fit into these categories in Canada) as:
Wendy Rogers explained that ‘long-term exercisers’ are people who exercise at least three times a week, and who have done so for at least a year.
Worryingly, a small proportion of Canadians fit into this category.
Rogers said: “…
Choose one quote to incorporate into the writing above (1 mark).
Critiquing Other Articles
Now you have had a good amount of practice in writing interesting articles, selecting quotations, and paraphrasing material succinctly, you should be able to critique articles written by other people. The final activities in this post-class set will require you to this when referring to the mythical summary article (below) of a recent science discovery that was published in a university newspaper.
Students who run at least twice a week are less likely to suffer from stress, according to a recent study published on a Kilberry University Science blog by graduate student Lily Maeve.
Maeve gave previously non-exercising students a survey designed to ‘rank’ stress levels from non-existent to very high, both before and after a six-month period in which they either ran at least twice a week or maintained doing little to no regular exercise.
She found that the ‘runners’ decreased their stress levels by a great amount whereas the ‘non-runners’ were just as stressed at the end of the experiment as they were at the beginning.
QUOTE 1: “We thought that we would consider two groups of students: those who decided to take up running, and those who decided not to,” explained Maeve.
QUOTE 2: “Most students said they expected to see these results yet other data shows that less than a quarter of these same students actually run twice a week, so I think it’s time to stop making excuses and get that running gear on!”
QUOTE 3: “I think the results are very reliable because we used a survey that was previously validated in other experiments; values from this survey were compared with medical data from the same people whose stress hormones in the blood were measured. The survey was found to be a very accurate predictor of the real stress levels.”
Question 7 (1 mark)
Which quote should be used as it is in the article?
A: Quote 1
B: Quote 2
C: Quote 3
Question 8 (1 mark)
Which of the three quotes should not be used in any way in the article? Hint: this one should not even be paraphrased.
A: Quote 1
B: Quote 2
C: Quote 3
Question 9 (1 mark)
Which quote is the best choice to paraphrase instead of using as a direct quote?
A: Quote 1
B: Quote 2
C: Quote 3
Question 10 (2 marks)
Explain your answer to Q9. Briefly state why this quote should be paraphrased (1 mark) and then succinctly paraphrase it yourself (1 mark).