What are information readers to make of citation marks in an article or headline? It appears a easy query, however this punctuation sometimes causes a misimpression.
The problem arose not too long ago after The Sunday Oregonian printed a superb and in-depth examination by Okay-12 schooling reporter Julia Silverman of the revival of proficiency primarily based grading.
The tactic of grading is typically known as “equitable grading” and depends extra on mastery of educational abilities and fewer on habits, akin to handing over work late, as Silverman defined.
The front-page headline stated, “State takes one other take a look at ‘fairness grading.’”
One reader wrote to me objecting to the headline for 2 causes.
“In keeping with the article itself, the subject material is ‘… proficiency-based or equitable grading…’ — not fairness grading,” he wrote. “So the headline placing fairness grading in quotes is just incorrect.”
The Oregonian/OregonLive follows Related Press fashion, as many main information organizations do. Basically, the AP Stylebook says, citation marks are used “to encompass the precise phrases of a speaker or author when reported in a narrative,” or, on this case, a headline.
The reader was appropriate that the phrase “fairness” mustn’t have been in citation marks within the headline. Quote marks are utilized in headlines when a phrase or phrase is a direct quote from the article.
Apart from the misquote, did the headline really mislead anybody?
The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines “fairness” as “one thing that’s equitable.”
That leads me to the reader’s second concern, past accuracy, which is what he noticed because the implication of the headline. “To paraphrase of us of a sure political perspective: ‘Oh, no, not one other woke try to make use of ‘fairness’ to assist folks of shade / LGBTQ (or no matter) and drawback white folks,’” he wrote.
Different readers could not have reacted negatively, he stated, however maybe skipped the article as one of many “fairness issues” that merely didn’t curiosity them, “when, in the event that they’d learn the article, they’d have realized it’s not that in any respect.”
Whereas it’s true that equitable grading incorporates many issues, there is a component of fairness inside it, as Silverman wrote. The tactic “uplifted college students, significantly those that have historically struggled at school with studying disabilities or language obstacles.” She quoted a supporter as saying some faculties with out equitable grading “use grades as a approach to rank and kind, which may exclude college students — particularly college students of shade — from Superior Placement, twin credit score or career-technical schooling lessons.”
This was not the primary thrust of her article however definitely a element.
Whereas the phrases that seem inside citation marks needs to be the phrases spoken by a supply, most newspapers do enable for a little bit of “cleansing up” of quotes. Eradicating an occasional “um” or “er” is allowed as long as the that means is just not modified.
Reporters typically do that cleansing as they’re taking notes with a pen or on a pc. Our essential targets are accuracy but in addition readability.
Earlier this 12 months, an audio recording of then-President Jimmy Carter’s go to to the Mount St. Helens blast zone in 1980 was launched. I listened to the tape after which in contrast the quotes in The Oregonian’s protection within the following day’s paper. Whereas the gist of Carter’s feedback had been appropriate, each single quote as recorded within the article was not phrase for phrase when in comparison with the contemporaneous audio recording.
I chalked this as much as human error when taking notes in a busy state of affairs. Whereas reporters now typically can report a speaker on an iPhone, note-taking errors should happen.
What about grammatical errors made by the speaker? Except there’s a compelling cause to cite somebody’s dangerous grammar, we’d usually paraphrase somewhat than repeat errors in a direct quote. Readers are inclined to learn such quotations and assume journalists are desiring to belittle or mock somebody, when in actuality all of us communicate imperfectly a lot of the time.
One other manner citation marks can journey up understanding is when readers overlook the quote marks and assume the newspaper is making a declarative assertion. I recall reader revolt many years in the past when a Sports activities web page headline referred to “the ‘hapless’ Path Blazers.” It’s misplaced to the mists of time who we had been quoting however most readers missed the nuance and thought the newspaper was deeming the staff “hapless.”
Right here’s yet one more manner quotes in headlines can hinder clear communication: so-called “scare quotes.”
The AP Stylebook says, “Put citation marks round a phrase or phrases utilized in an ironical sense: The ‘debate’ became a free-for-all.”
That kind of use is now extensively learn as not simply ironical but in addition meant to inject skepticism or doubt.
Final 12 months, a headline on OregonLive stated, “Police establish ‘harmless’ 26-year-old mom killed by road racer in SE Portland.”
The headline author was quoting witnesses, desiring to convey the sufferer was merely a bystander, uninvolved on the street racing.
One reader thought the quotes “put a query mark on the label ‘harmless’ when she was simply ready for a bus.”
It’s an instance of when a device for readability, the easy citation mark, can confuse as an alternative.
