Propaganda is a dirty word. As a writer you have a responsibility to recognize it. As a reader your future may depend on whether you recognize it or not. I’ve been away visiting family and wasn’t sure I’d post this week. But something I saw on Facebook prompted this post. Twisted Truth Let’s start with a definition. Click here. We rarely think of propaganda as the truth. Surprisingly, propaganda can be the truth repackaged. Let me explain. In seventh grade Mrs. Tucker taught a unit on advertising and propaganda. I find it interesting how these topics are linked, but I digress. At the height of the Cold War, she presented…
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Quotation Marks
Whether you’re writing fiction, a letter to the editor, or a heavily researched report, it is important to know how and when to use quotation marks. Dialog In fiction, quotation marks are used exclusively for dialog. That is to say, they surround a character’s spoken words. For example: I shove the photo in Evan’s face. “Who is she?” I demand. “Alex,” he says, his face a giant question mark. And you slipped this into my locker because. . . ?” he actually squirms under my glare “You said you wanted pictures.” In this example the character’s spoken words begin and end with quotation marks. Anything outside of the quotation marks…
