Blending

Quotes Into
a News
Report

Purpose
The first major writing task on
the OSSLT is the News Report.
This task is worth a significant
amount of marks, and therefore
you must be prepared for it.
In order for your work to qualify
as an actual news report, it
must contain quotations. In this
presentation, you will learn how
to properly use quotations when
writing a news report for the
OSSLT.

Rules
The quotes used in a news report, are short (less
than 4 sentences) and direct (spoken by a person).
Effective use of quotations requires that you include
quotations in your news report in a way that allows
the reader to understand the relevance of the quoted
material to your purpose.
You should never drop a
quotation into your news
report unannounced and
apparently unrelated to the
ideas around it. The
quotation must always be
embedded into one of your

Signal phrases
One way to do this is using signal phrase that
incorporates the quotation smoothly into your
writing and, just as importantly, provides context
for the material.
Very often a signal
phrase will also name the
speaker of the quote,
thus serving at once to
include the quotation
smoothly and to attribute
the idea to its source.

Simple Examples
These students are always
late!
The teacher shouted,
These students are always
late!
The principal loudly
exclaimed, These students
are always late!
These students are always
late! Cried the teacher.

Now you try!

Complex Examples
The principal, Linda Williams
explained to the crowd that they
were able to raise $10, 000 due to a
great effort by the entire school. The
teachers, students and custodial staff
combined their efforts to make this
event a success.
This was a great effort by the entire
school. The teachers, students and
custodial staff combined their efforts
to make this event a success,
explained the new principal, Linda
Williams, who was speaking in front
of a delighted crowd of 500 students.

Now you try!