SETTING UP QUOTATIONS

When incorporating quotations in your essay, vary the way that you introduce them. The following gives you several examples as well as how to punctuate the sentences correctly. Note that the discussion of the story, in this case, is in the present tense. Below are five ways to say basically the same thing:

When Jim Burden arrives in Nebraska, he feels that “the world was left behind, that we had got over the edge of it, and were outside man’s jurisdiction” (54).

When Jim Burden arrives in Nebraska, he is overwhelmed. “I had the feeling that the world was left behind, that we had got over the edge of it, and were outside man’s jurisdiction” (54).

When Jim Burden arrives in Nebraska, he says, “I had the feeling that the world was left behind, that we had got over the edge of it, and were outside man’s jurisdiction” (54).

“I had the feeling that the world was left behind, that we had got over the edge of it, and were outside man’s jurisdiction,” states Jim Burden when he arrives in Nebraska (54).

“I had the feeling,” believes Jim Burden when he arrives in Nebraska, “that the world was left behind, that we had got over the edge of it, and were outside man’s jurisdiction” (54).