Medium Quotes: You’ve Been Using Them All Wrong
We all have — even seasoned writers are guilty of this
Most writing advice on the internet tells you to make your introduction strong by using a catchy quote to open, but they never said which type of quote to use.
I’m not guilty of starting my stories with quotes, but I am however guilty of using the two types of Medium quotes interchangeably.
If you are a rebel who breaks the rules on purpose, then this doesn't apply to you, but if you are interested in mastering your craft like I am, then you are the one I am trying to talk to.
First, I want to say thanks to Beth Bradford, Ph.D. for helping me know I was using Medium quotes wrong and for sharing an article that explained it well, made me want to learn more, and inspired me to write this. When we don't teach, we lose what we learn as fast as we learn them.
The Different Types of Medium Quotes and the Proper Ways to Use Them
Medium gives us two options for using quotes in our articles. There is the blockquote and pull quotes.
Select any text in the editor and click on the quote icon in the menu to make it a blockquote. Click the icon again to make it a pull quote — Medium.
Blockquotes
A blockquote is a quote in a block, and the words inside of them aren't yours. The words in a blockquote are borrowed. Here is an example:
You don’t quote yourself in a blockquote unless you’re quoting from a source other than the one you’re currently writing. That would be sort of like talking about yourself in the 3rd person. It’s weird — KM Brown.
I borrowed the above quote from someone, so I used a blockquote.
Pull quotes
The quote I used to open this article is called a pull quote. A pull quote is a quote pulled from somewhere in the body of the article.
And if you just started your article, then you couldn’t have possibly pulled it from anywhere because, you guessed it, you just started writing.
“The proper way to use quotes to begin an article would be to use them in quotation marks.”
A pull quote is a text pulled from the article to quote yourself and emphasize an important point of the story.
They are also used to create more white space to make the story easy on the eyes, easy to read, and digest. For example:
If you are a rebel who breaks the rules on purpose, then this doesn’t apply to you, but if you are interested in mastering your craft like I am, then you are the one I am trying to talk to.
As you can see, I quoted myself from the third paragraph. I am trying to stress the fact that if you choose to use a pull quote to open your article on purpose, then keep doing your thing!
The article Beth shared with me was written by KM Brown and she advises not to use pull quotes as repetitions of something you’ve just said or something you’re going to say now.
She advises not to use pull quotes as repetitions of something you’ve just said or something you’re going to say now.
The pull quote above wasn’t used properly because I literally just said the same thing, so quoting it again is redundant. Also, the proper way to quote what another person said is to use a blockquote.
She advises positioning your pull quote with some distance between it and the same passage within the text.
Like anything else in this world, too much of a good thing can be bad so avoid overusing pull quotes.
Overuse dilutes its power, so save it for one or two of the ideas you wouldn’t want readers to miss — KM Brown
If pull quotes are pulled from the same article, that means we can’t quote other people using pull quotes.
No one learns as much about a subject as one who is forced to teach it ― Peter Drucker.
I can’t quote Peter Drucker using a pull quote because it wasn't pulled from anywhere in this article. And also, his words aren't mine. The above quote is correct as a blockquote, like this:
No one learns as much about a subject as one who is forced to teach it ― Peter Drucker.
Makes sense, right?
Key Takeaways
The best way to retain information is to teach it indeed! After learning this, it makes perfect sense to me and I will be using quotes correctly from now on. So here is a recap:
Block and pull quotes both enhance the quality of an article. They make articles fun and easy to read.
Blockquotes are used when quoting another person, acknowledging them for their work, and giving credit where it's due. Avoid using blockquotes to quote yourself unless you talk about yourself in the third person.
Pull quotes are used when quoting an especially important part of your article and are often repetitions of what you've already said or are going to say at some point in your article. Avoid using pull quotes to quote another person. That would defeat the purpose of the “pull” in pull quote.
And oh, before you go, here is the article by KM Brown. She goes into detail and explains how to use punctuations and links in quotes. Check it out if you'd like to learn more.
Did you know about the proper use of quotes before reading this article, or this is your first time learning about it, like me? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.
