Anonymous  +  542146 Wed, 16 Jul 08 02:30 AM Hi, Can you teach me the ways to quote the one below, which is pretended to have been spoken by Joe, including ways to quote partially and selectively? Hypothetical quotational content (not necessarily true): Joe: "A lot of Chinese I saw seem to worry too much for too long for no good reasons." Can I quote partially to report this? How can one use it to incorporate into my writing in newspaper context and formal writing context or informal writing context? Anonymous

	Grammar Geek  +  542152 Wed, 16 Jul 08 02:41 AM You mean like this? Joe expressed his belief that there is excessive worrying on the part of many Chinese "for no good reasons." Grammar Geek Joined on Tue, Jan 10 2006 Veteran Member 19,683 Barbara, who answers in American English. My housekeeping skills attest to the truth of the second law of thermodynamics: Left to themselves, things get more and more random!

	Grammar Geek  +  542344 Wed, 16 Jul 08 01:39 PM Actually, your restatement gives an unintended meaning. Go back to mine and just and "he enountered" after the word "Chinese." My omission was not intentional. Joe talked to at least a few people, and most of them are worried. Joe may assume that if he talked to a million people, most of them would be worried. He may be thinking that most Chinese in general are worried. In your restatement, you refer to "a small portion of Chinese" -- that gives a very different view. That implies that if he talked to a million people, only a few would be worried. You can omit what is not relevant. This would NOT be okay: Joe: The Times is a good paper. It's reliable, it's reputable, it's accurate. The Record is a piece of trash, frequently distorting the truth. The reporter from the Record writes: In comments that included references to the Times, Joe even used the phrase "a piece of trash."   Grammar Geek

	Grammar Geek  +  542667 Thu, 17 Jul 08 03:00 AM None of those would be acceptable - all omit the cruicial elements of "only if you give me a bucket of water." There are only a few times you need to use direct quotes outside of journalism. Otherwise, we go with reported speech.   Grammar Geek

	persistentcookie  +  542746 Thu, 17 Jul 08 07:09 AM if you're changing a pronoun in a quote, then you put the changed part in brackets. for example, the statement "I will love her forever and ever," might be quoted by someone else as "[He] will love her forever and ever." Another example would be if the quote you're using uses "he," "she," or "they," instead of the proper name and the proper name has not been mentioned before, it is acceptable to use brackets and replace the pronoun with the proper noun. i.e. "He won the game single-handedly," could be changed to, "[Joe Schmoe] won the game single-handedly." persistentcookie Joined on Thu, Jul 17 2008 New Member 05 Nouns, Pronouns