Figure 3-3.—Speech story using the quote-summary method.
have asked the Secretary of Defense to
make available, to the maximum extent
possible, in-service training and
educational opportunities that will
increase their chances for employment
in civilian life.”
An example of a lead with a lesser-known person
may read as follows:
The Navy’s Chief of Information
said in a speech last night that his office
was requesting more than 100
additional public affairs duties and
emphasized that a preplanned public
affairs program was essential.
In the second paragraph the writer usually gives a
fuller identification of the speaker, the occasion of the
speech, where it was given, and, if there is room and it
is noteworthy, the attendance. Next, the writer uses the
quote-summary method of organization.
The quote-summary method uses one paragraph of
quotes from the speaker, then one of the writer’s
paraphrase. It does not matter which comes first -
quote or summary. This method allows the reader to get
the flavor of the speech through the quotes but enables
the writer to reduce the length of his story by
summarizing large portions.
For example, the following is a quoted paragraph
followed by a paraphrased paragraph:
“Our children can read, write,
spell, do arithmetic and use grammar,
which is more important than learning
a lot of meaningless rules.”
In criticizing drill, or rote,
teaching, the school superintendent
argued that under former methods a
child might win a medal in American
history and still not understand the
meaning of American democracy.
Notice that the paragraph of summary is related to
the quoted one. The speech story, like any other, keeps
related material together. Figure 3-3 illustrates a speech
story using the quote-summary method.
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