“QUOTE” OR “QUOTATION”: WHICH IS IT?

Quote properly the quotation.  So, to be proper, quote is the verb; the words spoken or written constitute the quotation (a noun).  And yet, however, we do have misquotes and misquote–and a researcher just might find three or four really good quotes to bolster the argument.  Thus, the living English language will accept the verb becoming the noun, no matter how many howl “Quothe? Never!”; for it shall be “Nevermore!”

THE QUOTE CHALLENGE: A BLOGGER’S ACTIVITY

Bloggers write.  Bloggers come up with ideas to write about.  Bloggers write about loss, grief, illness, addiction, disappointment, failure.  Also about humor, happiness, geography, history, fishing, travel, truth, parents.  Real things.  Made up things.  Any thing.  Every thing.

Quotations are great sources of inspiration and great sources for topics for bloggers’ writing.  Quotations are like a box of chocolates: You never know what you’re going to get until you bite into a piece (unless you cheat with the inside cover of a Whitman Sampler).  [The old Latin psychology phrase–not quoted here–says that whatever is received is received according to the mode of the receiver.  Feeling crappy?  Most of what happens then throughout the day feels crappy.  And maybe it was that flat tire in the morning before work, or the kids, or the unfinished report.  So a quotation that is supposed to be uplifting then feels crappy.]

So there is this kind of challenge going around Bloggerville: “The Quote Challenge”: Here’s how it works.  A blogger posts 1-3 quotes [obviously something significant to the blogger-author] for three days.  Then the blogger nominates three other bloggers to do the same.  Simple?  The payoff?  Possibly nine names of bloggers for all others to see; maybe nine quotes/quotations of importance to someone “out there.”  AND–NO TEST ON MONDAY!  What’s more?  No pressure to participate.  No hurt feelings.  No non-smiley face posted on a blogger’s home page: BAD BLOGGER.

The work will be finding a quotation…

 

And that is all.  However, if a blogger non-participates, well then John Milton covered that: “They also serve who only stand and wait.”  Something will come along–to make something different a better thing to do.

So it goes.

Kurt Vonnegut