Julia Bonner

The Knoxville News Sentinel outdoors editor told students that changing quotes does not always compromise the integrity of a journalist’s writing.

            “Quoting everybody directly…I don’t do it,” Bob Hodge said.  “Sometimes putting a quote in word for word makes for bad writing and boring reading.”

            Hodge, who earned his undergraduate degree in broadcasting from UT in 1984, said that it is sometimes better to change the quote of a speaker to make the writing more readable.

Hodge has worked for the News Sentinel since 1991 and has been the outdoors editor since 1995.

“Changing a quote is almost situational,” Hodge said. “I’m not a purist when it comes to changing quotes.”  He told students, however, that if it is not necessary to change a quote, then it should not be done. If it improves the writing and eliminates pauses and filler words, it often makes the writing more fluid.

            One reason why he does not feel it necessary to print every word a person says is that people are often unprepared for the questions the journalist presents. “You’re going to spend time with people who aren’t public speakers.” He told students to leave out the filler words the speaker uses. Filler words often lack importance and make for a less interesting story.

            Hodge said that putting extensive quotes in an article and including exactly what a speaker says makes readers less apt to finish an article.  “It makes the article boring and less readable,” Hodge said.  As long as the meaning of what a speaker said is accurate, the journalist has some discretion as to what parts of the quote fit the article.

According to Hodge, he knows people, some of which he even works with, who will leave certain words in an article to make a person sound less intelligent. Hodge, however, emphasized that writing to portray a person in a negative light is not part of his job.

“You don’t make people sound stupid,” Hodge said. “It’s not my job to ‘get people’ and make them sound stupid even if I’m covering a story about someone I don’t like.”

Although Hodge said that he sometimes does change a speaker’s quote, he emphasized that the meaning of what the person said must never be changed. “The only thing you can’t do is change the meaning of the quote,” Hodge said.  “I’m changing the quote, but not changing what he said.”

Hodge also advised students on conducting interviews. “If they don’t say anything, keep repeating the question,” Hodge said.  Hodge added that sometimes when a journalist asks someone a question, the journalist knows what the person is going to say, but he still needs to give him the opportunity to say it.

Hodge said that he has come up with his own shorthand to make sure he writes down and ensures that the meaning of what the speaker said is correct.  He said journalists develop their own system of note taking when interviewing, and the most important part is making sure the meaning of what a person said is never changed.

“In all my years 20 years of writing, I have only been accused of misquoting someone once,” Hodge said. “I must be doing something right.”