Quote Overload: 5 Tips to Make Citations More Meaningful

This is the year of the quotation. Quotes can be found everywhere; on social media, on framed artwork, in craft projects, in greeting cards and in entire books devoted to these snippets of knowledge. The Merriam-Webster definition of quo·ta·tion is, “something that a person says or writes that is repeated or used by someone else in another piece of writing or a speech”.

With the daily deluge of unmemorable quotes without an author, context or origin cited, the story and purpose of these words cannot be fully understood. Language is important, so be mindful of the words you choose to post that will remain on the internet forever. Follow these simple rules to make your quote postings more meaningful:

• Select quotations carefully and with intent. Who is the author? What was the original context? Know whom you are citing and understand why it is relevant to share.
• Motivational sayings can be encouraging, but quality is better than quantity. Fewer quotes makes the words more memorable.
• Do not hide behind a quote to give a cryptic hidden message to convey dissatisfaction with an ex, a boss or others. If you don’t have anything nice to say, nobody else wants to hear about it.
• Think before you post. Is the quote aligned with your value system? It might be a funny one, but is this a statement you want “out there” for infinity?
• Create your own words of wisdom! Use your creativity, experience and language to inspire others.

Lisa Grottodden is part of the GovLoop Featured Blogger program, where we feature blog posts by government voices from all across the country (and world!). To see more Featured Blogger posts, click here.