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PaperclipPerfector  3d ago (text post)   2394 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for January 19, 2025

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I agree, but the example was about journalism, to be clear, where the tags are a useful way of structuring a story for additional clarity. With directly quoted dialogue I think it’s a matter of writer’s preference / style, there are certainly novels with huge amounts of dialogue, bordering on a script in some cases, that I quite enjoy.

Fair enough. Offhand I can't recall an instance in which I thought a piece of journalism was sapped of interest by overuse of the word "said" but I'll keep an eye out for it in future.

Because I have too much time on my hands, I re-read one of my favourite pieces of journalism: "Shattered Glass" by Buzz Bissinger. Out of 45 speech tags, I count 30 "saids".

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