It was the best of sentences, it was the worst of sentences - June Casagrande 2010

You don't say: Descriptive quotation attributions

I edit a writer who does this a lot:

"The menu is all new," Jones enthused.

"Schools in the area are improving," Principal Wilson enthused.

"I'm enthused," I enthused.

Okay, maybe not that last one. But for all this writer's love of enthused for quotation attributions, guess how many times I've left it alone. Zero. Zippo. I change every single one. My justification is that, technically, this is an incorrect use of the verb. Look it up in a dictionary and you'll see that you can be enthused, you can even enthuse over something, but you can't enthuse something. It's not a transitive verb, at least not the way this writer uses it.

But that's just my excuse. The real reason is that I find enthused annoying. In journalism circles, said is a virtue—simple, precise, and unadorned—and alternatives to it are considered frilly and silly. You don't have to agree, but be aware that lots of editors hold this view. Choose your alternatives to said with great care.

Fiction gives you a little more creative elbow room, but not carte blanche. He hissed sometimes works. Screamed, hollered, moaned, explained, and replied all work well in some attributions. A lot of editors don't mind laughed for quotation attribution. I leave that one alone, but others change it. I change he extolled, and I consider echoed the sentiment a red flag telling me that the writer is just stringing together quotations, which doesn't qualify as writing.

An attribution should tell the Reader who was speaking. If possible, it can also convey a bit more information, like emotion. But said shouldn't be thrown out just because the writer is hell-bent on flaunting her uniqueness or creativity.

Here's another problem that crops up a lot in descriptive quotation attributions:

"Our redesigned casino will be better than ever," general manager and CEO Michael Roberts said, suggesting visitors try out the new higher-paying slot machines and the redesigned poker room while visiting the property and adding that the restaurant is now open 24 hours as well.

This goes back to our lesson on participles as modifiers. Adding, suggesting, noting, implying, referring to, and similar terms can all modify said, but some writers depend too much on this device. A quotation attribution is not an ideal place to squeeze in tons of extra information. When the result feels artificial, just make a new sentence or two.

If you like to get creative with quotation attributions, do. But do so because it works, not because you want to show off or be different. When in doubt, remember that said is an old friend you can always fall back on.