Good Worker Quotes
| 
WHAT MAKES A GOOD QUOTE
1.Short.
2.Conversational and not stilted or rhetorical.
3.Uses expressions, facts, and tone that will connect with target audience’s interests, values, and language.
4.Adds human voice and experience to the other text. Doesn’t just repeat phrases already in the main text.
5.Sounds like that particular person said it.
6.Focused on a key message and makes that main point from the beginning.
7.Speaks for an individual but at some point ties into the need for group action and unity.
8.Has an ending that draws a conclusion or points to action.
9.Different from other quotes presented in the same context.
10. Does not contain assertions that may be wrong (either check or omit).
PLANNING AHEAD
Develop sample quotes and specific questions
Before you interview a worker, think about some “ideal” quotes, and ask yourself what kinds of testimonials readers will respond to. What will be persuasive?
Think about what hesitations or doubts readers may have. If the person you are quoting overcame those same doubts, get them to talk about that so readers will have an easier time identifying with them.
Next, figure out what kinds of questions you’ll need to ask during the interview. For example, let’s say you want to write a flyer or article that quotes a member saying something like,
“I didn’t know anything about organizing and wasn’t sure I could do it. But when I started talking to the temp workers, I saw how well it went. I just explained how being united in a union makes a difference, and we found out we had a lot in common.”
If you only ask your subject the general question, “Tell me about being a member organizer,” you may only get a general response—“I really like it.”
For a more colorful quote, you’ll need to ask more and more specific questions such as, “What made you decide to try being a member organizer?” and “How did you feel before your first house visit – were you nervous at all? How did you know what to say?”
Before the interview, jot down a list of specific questions that will help generate the kinds of quotes you’re looking for.
Start a conversation
Don’t lead off with your key questions. You’ll have a better chance of getting colorful, in-depth answers to those if you get your subject talking first. Start with easy questions about work history or family life that can be answered comfortably with more than a “yes” or “no.”
Listen carefully and ask follow-ups
The best quotes are vivid, concrete, and emotional. As the interview proceeds, listen carefully and ask follow-up questions to get your subject to be more specific: “What’s an example of that?” “How did management respond to that?” “Why do you think that happened?” “How did people you work with feel about that?”
Use hypotheticals and play devil’s advocate
To stimulate stronger, more emotional statements, ask questions such as, “How do you answer those that say…?” or “What about the argument that…?” or “I’ve heard some people saying x…how would you answer that?”
Toward the end, you may generate useful comments by asking, “If you could say one thing to all your co-workers who aren’t sure about X, what would you say?”
WRITING IT UP
When you write up an interview, don’t edit out all the slang and informal way of talking the person used. Phrases that sound the way people talk give an interview credibility.
You can, however, streamline what someone said to make it clearer—as long as their vocabulary and the original intent of their comments remains the same. If you have any doubt, check the final version with the worker before publishing it.
OTHER WAYS TO GET GOOD QUOTES
Sometimes workers will say something in casual conversation or at a meeting or rally that would make a good quote. Write it down, and ask them if you can use it.
If you know a worker well, you may be able to draft a quote to go over with them. But work with them to keep it from sounding like union rhetoric instead of a person’s quote.
EXAMPLE
NO: “Everybody in our local should be signed up for COPE check-off. With budget cuts threatening the services we depend on, that’s the only way our union will have the political power we need.”
YES: “Every time my daughter or my mom get sick I hold my breath wondering if we'll be able to afford going to the doctor. That's why I give money to our political action fund every month. It's not to benefit the politicians. It's to fight for health care for all of us."
Courtesy of TheWorkSite.org