There are too many things to know to document here—most you'll absorb as you observe other editors work. But following are a few things to get you started.
Quotations
Speeches formats quotes in one of two ways: in-text and block.
In text:
When I was in school, we used to recite the Pledge of Allegiance, which says, "I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic, for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all" (Francis Bellamy, "The Pledge of Allegiance," in The Youth's Companion [Boston, Massachusetts: Perry Mason, 1982], 83). It's hard to remember that you don't need to say "amen" after saying the Pledge of Allegiance.
Block:
When I was in school, we used to recite the Pledge of Allegiance, which says:
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic, for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. [Francis Bellamy, "The Pledge of Allegiance," in The Youth's Companion [Boston, Massachusetts: Perry Mason, 1982), 83]
It's hard to remember that you don't need to say "amen" after saying the Pledge of Allegiance.
[Editor's note: These citations and any following are deliberately inaccurate and are for training purposes only!]
More on source documentation is coming later (including more elaboration on endnotes vs. in-text references), but while you're here, look carefully at how each of those quotes is formatted and note the many opposites:
- With in-text quotes, the citation precedes the final period. With block quotes, the final period precedes the citation.
- With in-text quotes, the citation is included in parentheses and brackets are used to set off internal parenthetical information. With block quotes, the citation is included in brackets and parentheses set off any internal parentheticals.
- With block quotes, there is always a line break between the preceding and following sentences. With in-text quotes, there are no line breaks.
I would be my brother's keeper;
I would learn the healer's art.
To the wounded and the weary
I would show a gentle heart.
I would be my brother's keeper—
Lord, I would follow thee.
[Hymns, 1985, no. 220]
However, occasionally they are placed in text with forward slashes placed in between each line:
My English teacher's favorite lines of literature were, "But soft, what light through yonder window breaks? / It is the east, and Juliet is the sun" (Romeo and Juliet, act 1, scene 2, lines 140–41).
When it comes to verifying lyrics from hymns in the LDS hymnbook, make sure punctuation matches, and the lines without punctuation stay without. (But ignore hyphens, as they separate words so the syllables will line up under particular notes. For example, "As I search the ho-ly scrip-tures, Lov-ing Fa-ther of man-kind" should be quoted, "As I search the holy scriptures, Loving Father of mankind."
Look closely at the way the citations above are formatted. That is pure Speeches citation style and is a blend of Chicago and the LDS Church Style's rules of source documentation and conventions Karen has curated during her many years as an editor.
To be able to help with Speeches citations, you will need to become intimately familiar with chapters 16 and 17 in Chicago and review closely any relevant paragraphs in the LDS Church Style. The Chicago-Style Citation Quick Guide on the Chicago Manual of Style's Web page is also an excellent go-to.
The best way to familiarize yourself with the complicated conventions and try to decipher how to format a citation, though, is to look at examples of how citations have been done in previous speeches on the Speeches Web site (only use speeches posted after the year 2000, which is approximately when Karen started heading up Speeches-related editorial duties).
AB reading
The most thing to do when verifying sources is to do an AB read between the original source material and the quoted material. You want the quoted material to match exactly in every way the original source material. With a couple exceptions, of course:
1. Any asides or comments by the speaker interjected in the middle of the quoted material should be left there, but surrounded by brackets (brackets and inclusive material should not be italicized if part of a block quote):
It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.
2. Chicago allows editors to silently correct grevious spelling or grammatical errors. For example,
I terned around and there he was
could be silently corrected to read
I turned around and there he was
Another option is to insert "[sic]":
I terned [sic] around and there he was
This indicates the publication is aware of the error but chose to keep it in tact. Consult with Karen on a case-by-case basis if you encounter spelling or grammatical errors in an original source to see how she would prefer to handle it.
Page numbers
Many online digital repositories report page numbers. However, that information may be unreliable as the repositories sometimes start counting at 1 instead of 0 or vice versa. (Even the page numbers reported on the textual archives of the Church magazines are often inaccurate. Luckily, it's possible in recent years to download PDF versions, which show the actual page number.) For that reason, it's best to go back to the original source and see for your self what an actual page number is.
Also, note that BYU Magazine includes "p." and "pp." in their citations while Speeches does not.
When to indent quoted material
Long story short: if the quoted material starts in the middle of a paragraph or sentence, the first line of the quote in the edited document should begin flush left. Following are some examples and some elaboration on that principle.
Quoted material:
Call me Ishmael. Some years ago—never mind how long precisely—having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world. It is a way I have of driving off the spleen and regulating the circulation.
Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people's hats off—then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can. This is my substitute for pistol and ball.
With a philosophical flourish Cato throws himself upon his sword; I quietly take to the ship. There is nothing surprising in this. If they but knew it, almost all men in their degree, some time or other, cherish very nearly the same feelings towards the ocean with me.
Here is an example the quoted material starts at the beginning of a paragraph. The first line of the quote in the speech should be indented:
With a philosophical flourish Cato throws himself upon his sword; I quietly take to the ship. There is nothing surprising in this. If they but knew it, almost all men in their degree, some time or other, cherish very nearly the same feelings towards the ocean with me. [Herman Melville, Moby Dick (New York: Old Classics Publishers, 1890), 47]
However if the quote used in the speech came from the middle of a paragraph, it would appear in the speech as follows (note the lack of indent):
I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world. It is a way I have of driving off the spleen and regulating the circulation. [Herman Melville, Moby Dick (New York: Old Classics Publishers, 1890), 47]
If the quote starts in the middle of a paragraph and includes the start of a new paragraph, it should be printed in the speech as follows:
I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can. This is my substitute for pistol and ball.
With a philosophical flourish Cato throws himself upon his sword; I quietly take to the ship. There is nothing surprising in this.
Answers to source documentation questions, such as when to indent, how to properly use ellipses, when to capitalize, etc. can often be found by scouring speeches edited after around 2000, when Karen began editing them, and finding an example that matches the case you are trying to figure out.
