Quotes, Numbers and Other Things Beginners Mangle

Quotes and numbers are where trust lives or dies. Get a quote wrong and the person you quoted will call you. Get a number wrong and every person who can do division will call you, and in a small town that's a lot of retired engineers. Marge keeps a list of retired engineers who have called her. It's laminated.

"Said." Just say said.

Beginners think "said" is boring, so they reach for the thesaurus. Suddenly the mayor is exclaiming, asserting, claiming, chortling, opining and, in one draft Marge still talks about, "averring." (It means "said firmly." Nobody under 90 has averred anything out loud. Do not let the mayor aver.)

Use "said." It's invisible. Readers' eyes slide right over it and land on the quote, which is where you want them. Every fancier verb adds a judgment. "Claimed" suggests the speaker might be lying. "Admitted" suggests they were caught. "Insisted" makes them sound stubborn. If you're writing news, you don't get to tilt the reader with a verb.

A few more rules that save headaches:

• Name first, verb second, mostly. "Dunn said" reads more naturally than "said Dunn" in most cases. Either is acceptable. Pick one and stay consistent.
• Full name and title on first mention. "Mayor Linda Dunn." After that, last name only: "Dunn." Not "Linda," unless she's your cousin and this is a family newsletter.
• Attribute once per quote. Put "said" after the first sentence of a quote, not after every sentence. Readers know who's still talking.
• Attribute facts, too. Not just quotes. "The city has 7,000 households, according to the utility billing office." If a reader wonders "says who?", you answer before they ask.

When to quote and when to paraphrase

Quote the parts only that person could say. Paraphrase the boring parts.

Never change the words inside quote marks. Not to fix grammar. Not to make it shorter. Not to make it sound better. If you need to cut, paraphrase instead, or use only the part you need exactly as said. Quote marks are a promise: these are the exact words. Break that promise once and nobody believes the rest.

Numbers people can actually read

Readers can hold about one number per sentence before their eyes glaze over. Two if they really care. Three and you've lost them to the dog in the hat.

Style basics, following the Associated Press habits most news outlets use:

• Spell out one through nine, use figures for 10 and up. "Three council members," "14 residents." Exceptions include ages, percentages and money, which take figures.
• "Percent" or "%": style guides differ, and AP's own rule has changed over the years. This course spells out "percent" in running text. Pick one and be consistent.
• Big numbers: "$4.2 million" beats "$4,200,000" in a sentence.
• Don't start a sentence with a figure. Rewrite it or spell it out. "Fourteen residents spoke" or "Residents spoke 14 times."

Per-person math: the most useful trick in local reporting

Big totals mean nothing to people. "$4.2 million" sounds like a lot or a little depending on how your reader feels about Tuesdays. Divide it by something your reader understands.

Total cost:        $4,200,000
Households:        7,000
Per household:     $4,200,000 / 7,000 = $600

"The pipe project costs about $600 per Pickleton household" is a sentence people feel in their gut. Spread over ten years, that's about $60 a year, or $5 a month. Now your reader can actually decide whether that seems reasonable.

Rules for per-person math:

1. Use the right divisor. If it's paid through water bills, divide by water customers, not total population. Babies don't pay water bills, although some of them seem to use a lot of water.
2. Source the divisor too. "7,000 households, according to the city utility office."
3. Say it's an average. Some households pay more, some less.
4. Show your work, at least once, in plain words. Readers trust math they can check.

Percent change without the faceplant

Percent change = (new minus old) divided by old, times 100.

Old bill:  $50
New bill:  $59
Change:    $9
$9 / $50 = 0.18  ->  18 percent

Classic beginner mistake: dividing by the new number instead of the old one. $9 divided by $59 is about 15 percent, which is wrong, and a retired engineer is already dialing.

Second classic mistake: confusing percent with percentage points. If the local tax rate goes from 10 percent to 12 percent, that's a 2 percentage point increase, but a 20 percent increase in the rate. Both are true. They mean different things. Say which one you mean.

Rounding honestly

Round to make numbers readable. Never round to make them scarier or nicer.

• 29.4 percent is "about 30 percent" or "almost 30 percent." It is not "over 30 percent," and stretching it to "nearly a third" is pushing your luck.
• $9.03 is "about $9."
• $4,187,500 is "about $4.2 million."
• If the exact number matters (a vote count, a budget line in dispute), give the exact number.

Opinion writers, this applies double to you. If you round in the direction that helps your argument every single time, readers will notice, and the other side will happily point it out.