THE ART OF SPEAKING AMERICAN ENGLISH - Plot & Excerpts
This sounds like a fair assumption, and may actually be true in a variety of scenarios, though usually not when it comes to explaining what someone else has previously said. Quoting someone verbatim is the lazy man in conversational English, and should generally be avoided except in cases where it is necessary for purposes of relating exclamatory statements, sarcasm, humor, and so forth. Note the differences in case 1 and 2 among examples A, B and C. A and C are both preferable to B. While A is a basic description of what Mary said, C makes use of quotation marks punctuated by an exclamation point to make Natsuko’s statement exclamatory. The quotation marks in B attempt to imitate C without making use of the emphasis an exclamation point provides, but sounds much like A in tone. This combination is seldom used in contemporary conversational English. Example 1 *A. Natsuko said she was unprepared to take the exam. B. Natsuko said, “I’m unprepared to take the exam.” *C. Natsuko said, “Oh my gosh!
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