Introductions

On many Internet forums, moderators ask that newcomers introduce themselves to the group. So...
My name is Laura L. (as opposed to Laura G.), and John B. Saul was my professor in Fall 2008 when I was a student in the School of Journalism at the University of Montana.
He took on the Herculean task of beating my boring, boorish and backward copy into something more bearable. Three years later, I am still trying to improve my writing - an undertaking that is never-ending and now more difficult without such a guiding hand.
But I enjoy the process, and if it takes a lifetime of trial-and-error to become fractionally better, there are worse ways to spend a lifetime.

Now that the introductions are out of the way, I would turn your thoughts to paraphrasing.
Every writer has to try to condense a source's comments to write a compelling story. The use of too many direct quotes can slow the pace of prose.
But writers must use caution when paraphrasing, because if key details are lost, so is the intended meaning.

Case and point: the inscription that is now on the sculpture at the new Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial. The inscription paraphrases part of one of King's speeches, but Roy Peter Clark and others argue the paraphrase is inaccurate. Unfortunately, now it is literally carved in stone.
King's time was recent enough that people are still familiar with his speeches, and some know better than to trust the inscription. But as time goes by, that could be less the case, especially considering how often incorrect information is perpetuated on the Internet.
So if a writer wants a story to be accurate - every nonfiction writer should want that - pay particular attention to paraphrasing. The treasury of history depends on veracious retelling.