Adding quotations

[caravanshed]

Please can you clever grammar people help me out with the correct punctuation here. This is for an official report which will end up in the legal arena. I have changed the names and details for confidentiality reasons !

The quote is as follows.

He says
"When she did go to the beach, Bertha would be hysterical - probably because she rarely saw the sea. We tried counting buckets and spades but this didn't work as the time between visits was so long."

(Quote is indented in my document.)

My manager has 'overseen' the report and corrected this sentence to :-

He says;
"...When she did go to the beach, Bertha would be hysterical - probably because she rarely saw the sea. We tried counting buckets and spades but this didn't work as the time between visits was so long...'

She has also removed the indent.

I have looked up on the grammar rules online but they are really confusing!

Thank you 😊

I didn’t think you used the ..... unless you were starting or finishing a quote mid sentence.

That's my view too. I also don't think a semi colon should be used before the quote either.

I don't think the ellipsis is required. I only use ellipsis when I am abbreviating quotes, e.g 'she said she was clever, witty... and that was the reason she admired her'. The ellipsis stands in for another adjective which I have excluded.

On the subject of the indent, I think this is a question of the style of writing. I remember that lengthy quotations were indented in one of my academic style guides, but not in the other (we used Harvard and MHRA but I can't remember which was which).

Do you have a house style? If you don't, maybe you could choose an academic style which most closely reflects your field of work.

Do I need any form of punctuation after the He says part?

I think you need a comma when introducing speech. I.e. He says, ‘When she did go...’

A colon would be used if you reported a situation. I.e. His statement indicated as follows: ‘When She did go...’

Fab, thank you for the help. I now just have to make the changes. 😊