Getting Back in the Game

In light of the Wise/Bryant debate, I wanted to check out the Washington Post for some quotes, in order to see if the reporters really adhered to the quotation policy of the newspaper. I found a story that really seems to back up the Post's ruling on quotations. It has not one, but several quotes revealing the policy of the Post: To write exactly what a person says, verbatim. And, if you can't get that, paraphrase.

The story is about a wheelchair-bound basketball team, comprised of players who previously lost a limb in combat for the Army. The following quotes demonstrate paraphrasing when an exact quote cannot be attained, writing honest word-for-word speech, and inserting brackets to clarify where necessary:

"There's this thought that amputees should not get involved in wheelchair sports," because it could be a psychological setback.

"I was like: 'Oh, this sucks. I'm back in a wheelchair,' " he said. "But I immediately saw this as a great workout, and it's a lot of fun."

For too long, she said, rehabilitation was too narrowly focused and "recreational therapy was not a priority."

"In the 1970s the idea was, 'Fix 'em up, get 'em up and get going,' " Demby said. "Now, guys are more competitive, and people began to see that as an important part of who you are. If they can do this, then maybe they can do something else. What you want to do with a program like this is capture the ones who aren't [interested in sports] because those are the ones who'll lay in a bed and think they can't do anything."