Extend Quotes

Ericksonian Language Patterns
An “Extend Quotes” pattern is a sentence that contains more than one quote so it becomes ambiguous as to where one stops and the other begins.
As you read the following examples, remember that these are being spoken, so the punctuation is far more ambiguous to a listener than it is to a reader. Remember also that you, as the speaker, can shift your tonality and emphasize certain phrases as embedded commands.

“I was talking with a friend of mine who said that when she had told her colleague about this workshop she said she’d heard it was the best class on language she had ever taken.”
“Interestingly, just last week a client of mine came in, sat in that very chair that you’re sitting in now and said to me, ‘my mother once told me it’s not very polite to stare with your eyes wide open at another person. She said it’s perfectly acceptable to listen and pay attention deeply when you close your eyes, now.'”

If you would like to imagine a business context, imagine you’re a coach talking to a prospective client:

“One of my coaching clients I worked with last year said he told two other people, and he told them directly, ‘you should hire me now,’ and that each of them had told other people to seriously consider it because it is so valuable, and he knew I had limited availability.”

I don’t know if I mentioned that a good friend last week told me that he downloads every new pattern every week and writes out dozens of examples that are pertinent to his own life. He said “doing this catapults you to new levels of competence” and that’s a simple and easy way to take full advantage of this opportunity, don’t you agree?
Ericksonian Language PatternsAn “Extend Quotes” pattern is a sentence that contains more than one quote so it becomes ambiguous as to where one stops and the other begins.
As you read the following examples, remember that these are being spoken, so the punctuation is far more ambiguous to a listener than it is to a reader. Remember also that you, as the speaker, can shift your tonality and emphasize certain phrases as embedded commands.

“I was talking with a friend of mine who said that when she had told her colleague about this workshop she said she’d heard it was the best class on language she had ever taken.”

“Interestingly, just last week a client of mine came in, sat in that very chair that you’re sitting in now and said to me, ‘my mother once told me it’s not very polite to stare with your eyes wide open at another person. She said it’s perfectly acceptable to listen and pay attention deeply when you close your eyes, now.'”

If you would like to imagine a business context, imagine you’re a coach talking to a prospective client:

“One of my coaching clients I worked with last year said he told two other people, and he told them directly, ‘you should hire me now,’ and that each of them had told other people to seriously consider it because it is so valuable, and he knew I had limited availability.”

I don’t know if I mentioned that a good friend last week told me that he downloads every new pattern every week and writes out dozens of examples that are pertinent to his own life. He said “doing this catapults you to new levels of competence” and that’s a simple and easy way to take full advantage of this opportunity, don’t you agree?