First a note: when making submissions, please keep submission comments brief and to the point, providing a specific source whenever possible. Submission and approval/rejection comments aren't the place for editorials, questions, site policy discussions, etc. If you have an issue, contact the editor or a staff member (if for an editorless page) by PM. Or post your question in one of the forums where other site users can help you. Submissions may be rejected if they have spam or extraneous comments, or if the information can't be verified independently, or if you make additional changes above and beyond what you describe.
How to Format a Quote
This is how you format a quote, using XHTML tags.
| Code: |
| <strong>John Smith</strong>: <em>(atop a high building)</em> I'm going to jump! <strong>Jill Jones</strong>: But you have so much to live for. The stars, the moon, the love of a good woman, a healthy pet, a silver Lamborghini, a brilliant career! |
(Use a single stroke of the Return/Enter key to start a new line rather than putting in a br code. It displays here because of the bbcode Code command)
Let's break down what needs to happen here:
1) One quote per quote submission.
2) Quotes must be word for word. Don't approximate, don't guess.
3) Speaker names are in bold.
4) The colon is not bolded.
5) A single space follows the colon.
6) Contextual material is in italics and parentheses or brackets.
7) No double-spacing between lines.
8) No extra white space after the last punctuation mark of the last line (caused by leaving in extra hard returns)
9) Proper capitalization and punctuation, and proper spacing after commas, periods, and other punctuation marks.
10) No song lyrics.
What's a good quote?
Quotes should be interesting, significant, memorable, and unique. They should stand on their own without a lot of context/explanation. The Quote section is for showing off how clever the show's writers are, presenting interesting, witty, dramatic, and/or significant dialogue.
The Quote section is partly for people who have never seen the show, and want to see if it's interesting and well-written. An unremarkable quote that "shows" or "proves" something on the show, but doesn't mean anything to the casual reader and is kind of boring on its own, is almost never acceptable.
What are not good quotes?
1) Quotes with lots of context and a non-memorable quote.
John Smith: (having spent his entire life from the age of 2 in abject poverty, having been rejected by his girl, seeing his dog run over, getting a scratch on his car, and losing a contact lens, and now ready to commit suicide) Goodbye!
2) Non-unique quotes you could find on any show, spoken by anyone.
John Smith: I love you.
3) A boring or non-memorable quote that "proves" something, whether the context is there or not.
John Smith: (declaring his undying love as established in episode # 523) I love you!
4) Transcripts. A quote should be relatively brief and to the point. A single 50-line quote isn't typically acceptable. Submitting every line of dialogue in the episode as a quote is not acceptable (unless it's a very short or mostly dialogue-free episode
).We don't want to set a limit because there are times when an editor or staff must use their discretion to use a really cool exchange or monologue. However, these exceptions should be few and far between.
5) Quotes that are primarily action sequences. Quotes are for... words. Dialogue. Back and forth banter. Action sequences have a lot of context and not much dialogue.
James Ho: (spin kicking wildly) I must avenge my master!
Benny Hana: (parrying the kick, launching a open-handed palm strike but narrowly missing) You shall never triumph!
James Ho (spinning away, then focusing all of his energy into a sliding triple-gainer cross-body roundhouse kick) Then die!
Contextual Material
Please use contextual material sparingly, and keep it as minimal as possible. Too much context can get in the way of reading the quote.
Contextual material should indicate something important. If it's not relevant to presenting an interesting quote, it's not necessary.
1) In this case, the contextual material establishes that's he's in a dangerous situation, instead of casually jumping off a curb. The context (atop a high building) is important (as part of the complete exchange given as the first example above. By itself it's kind of non-memorable).
John Smith: (atop a high building) I'm going to jump!
2) In this case, the quote is interesting and well-written as an example no matter who she is talking to. The context (to John) isn't necessary.
Jill Jones: (to John) But you have so much to live for. The stars, the moon, the love of a good woman, a healthy pet, a silver Lamborghini, a brilliant career!
3) Redundant context.
John Smith: (yelling) I'm going to jump!
In this case, the exclamation mark shows the person is yelling so (yelling) is unnecessary.
James Ho: (to Benny) I must avenge my master!
Benny Hana: (to James) You shall never triumph!
James Ho: (to Benny) Then die!
In this case, in the first couple of lines there's only two people indicated, and it's clear they're speaking to each other, so it's not necessary to use context to indicate they're speaking to each other. Again, context is unnecessary.
Common Mistakes
1 ) Forgetting to close the end HTML tag with a slash.
2 ) Putting spaces within the HTML tag.
3 ) Double-spacing between lines.
4 ) Leaving in extra hard returns and forcing extra white space beneath the quote.
5 ) Bolding the colon. John Smith: (atop a high building) I'm going to jump!
6 ) Using overall quotation marks. TV.com uses a script technique for Quotes, so it's not necessary to use quotation marks to indicate a quotation.
John Smith: (atop a high building) "I'm going to jump!"
7 ) Omitting the italics or parentheses or both from contextual material, or using something else like asterisks and dashes.
John Smith: *atop a high building* I'm going to jump!
8 ) Using upper case, for the speaker name as a replacement for bolding, or to redundantly indicate yelling, or both. Use italics for emphasis but an exclamation mark is sufficient to indicate yelling.
Bad;
JOHN SMITH: (atop a high building) I'M GOING TO JUMP!
Good:
John Smith: (atop a high building) I'm going to jump!
9 ) Submitting duplicate quotes. Remember, there's an All Quotes link. Click on it to see all the quotes on the page.
Finally...
Try and pick the best quotes. Yes, it can be tempting to post hundreds of quotes for your favorite episode, but keep in mind the more you submit, the harder it will be for people to spot the best.
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Next column: Reviewing
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Previous columns:
Write Like You Talk
Sourcing Your Material
Know Your Capitals!
A Matter of Timing
Soundalikes and You
Periods and Commas and Colons, Oh My!
Apostrophes, Hyphens, and Quotation Marks, Oh My!
Numbers and You
New Season New Shows
How to Write a Better Biography (1)
Tips on Trivia (2)
Star Quotes and Appearances
How to Submit an Episode
Episode Notes, Trivia, and Allusions
Edited on 01/09/2010 9:20pm
Edited 5 total times.
Edited 5 total times.
