Thanks so much! What happens when omitting text as well as inserting bracketed text? Which is correct: Option 1: Call et al. (2015) theorized that star employees “may be motivated to remain with organizations that provide opportunities to influence others. . . . [, which] . . . may help organizations retain stars more than they help retain other employees” (p. 633). Option 2: Call et al. (2015) theorized that star employees “may be motivated to remain with organizations that provide opportunities to influence others. . . . [, which] may help organizations retain stars more than they help retain other employees” (p. 633). Option 3: Call et al. (2015) theorized that star employees “may be motivated to remain with organizations that provide opportunities to influence others [, which] . . . may help organizations retain stars more than they help retain other employees” (p. 633). Option 4: Call et al. (2015) theorized that star employees “may be motivated to remain with organizations that provide opportunities to influence others [, which] may help organizations retain stars more than they help retain other employees” (p. 633).

Thank you for this excellent post! The final section does a fine job at explaining how to present a quotation spanning multiple sentences, where the part of the quotation preceding the ellipsis points happens to end in a period in the original text. (In the example, “decision-making" in the original happens to conclude the sentence.) How would we deal with a quotation that stopped midway through a sentence, omitted the remainder of the sentence, then picked up again in the middle of a later sentence? How would we show that some text has been omitted before the period (e.g., should there be a space preceding the first of the four ellipsis points)? Using the example provided, which of these (if any) would be correct? Option 1: Call et al. (2015) theorized that star employees “may be motivated to remain with organizations that provide opportunities to influence others. . . . providing such influence opportunities may help organizations retain stars more than they help retain other employees” (p. 633). Option 2: Call et al. (2015) theorized that star employees “may be motivated to remain with organizations that provide opportunities to influence others . . . . providing such influence opportunities may help organizations retain stars more than they help retain other employees” (p. 633).

The post does not address the question of whether someone’s thoughts or inner dialogue should be enclosed in quotation marks. Any advice you’re able to offer on this would be most welcomed and appreciated!