A Few Matters of Style

Introduction of quotations:

A quotation should never suddenly appear out of nowhere. Some kind of information about the quotation is needed. Name the author, give his or her credentials, name the source, give a summary. You won't do all of these each time, but you should usually name the author. For example:
a. But John Jones disagrees with this point, saying, "Such a product would not sell."
b. In an article in Time Fred Jackson writes that frogs vary in the degree of

shyness they exhibit: "The arboreal tree frogs seem to be especially. . . ."

Superscripts and punctuation:

Superscripted footnote numbers follow punctuation: apostles,¹ “Jesus said, ‘Love your neighbor.’”¹ Avoid footnote markers within sentences. Put them at the end.

Single and double quotation marks:

[Y]ou should use single quotation marks (') only to set off quoted material (or a minor title) inside a quotation. "I think she said `I will try,' not `I won't try,'" explained Sandy.

Quotation marks with other punctuation:

Keep periods and commas within quotation marks.

So, for example:

According to Professor Jones, Lincoln "feared the spread of slavery," but many of his aides advised him to "watch and wait."

In the above example, both the comma and period were enclosed in the quotation marks. The main exception to this rule involves the use of internal citations, which always precede the last period of the sentence. For example:

According to Professor Jones, Lincoln "feared the spread of slavery," but many of his aides advised him to "watch and wait" (Jones 143).

Note, however, that the period remains inside the quotation marks when your citation style involved superscript footnotes or endnotes. For example:

According to Professor Jones, Lincoln "feared the spread of slavery," but many of his aides advised him to "watch and wait."²