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If I'm quoting someone who used a racial slur should I use the actual word, or should I use it's hyphenated alternative (e.g. [n-word], [f-word], etc...)? I mean I'm quoting someone else so I don't want to misrepresent the quote, but at the same time I don't want to unintentionally offend anyone (the slur was used towards me btw). I think it's necessary to spell it out for effect, but I'm on the fence.

What do some of you think?

cartercl wrote:If I'm quoting someone who used a racial slur should I use the actual word, or should I use it's hyphenated alternative (e.g. [n-word], [f-word], etc...)? I mean I'm quoting someone else so I don't want to misrepresent the quote, but at the same time I don't want to unintentionally offend anyone (the slur was used towards me btw). I think it's necessary to spell it out for effect, but I'm on the fence.

What do some of you think?

The only reason I can think of to quote someone using offensive language is to draw attention to the language itself. As you say it's necessary to actually use the word for effect, or else I assume you could just use another quote that does not use the potentially offensive word so as to bypass this problem. Use the quote as-is or find another one that doesn't use the offensive word.

cartercl wrote:If I'm quoting someone who used a racial slur should I use the actual word, or should I use it's hyphenated alternative (e.g. [n-word], [f-word], etc...)? I mean I'm quoting someone else so I don't want to misrepresent the quote, but at the same time I don't want to unintentionally offend anyone (the slur was used towards me btw). I think it's necessary to spell it out for effect, but I'm on the fence.

What do some of you think?

I think if you're actually going to quote her then you should use the real word. If you're just describing the situation or something, maybe say n-word.

Okay. From what you guys have said I think it's necessary to use the actual word for my purposes. Thanks for the input.