I couldn’t find a “grammar help” community so I thought this might be a good place to pose this question. Sorry for asking something that boils down to “please help me with my homework” but I’m at a loss. I’m supposed to be using MLA format.

Here’s the text I’m quoting:

“While recognizing the critical potential of the dystopic imagination, this volume examines it as a form of urban representation; the modern city, after all, appears to be an instantiation of a dystopic form of society.”

Here’s my sentence:

Prakash notes the utility of dystopian media, stating “this volume examines it as a form of urban representation; the modern city, after all, appears to be an instantiation of a dystopic form of society.” (3)

Is this right? Should I have the period at the end of the parentheses? I tried looking through my textbook and a few online articles but I couldn’t find an example with a parenthetical citation and a quote that includes a period. Thanks for the help!

  • frazorth
    2·
    2 months ago

    Not American here. Why would you put the punctuation inside the quotes unless you are quoting punctuation? Unless I misunderstood what you mean.

    For example:

    Bob wrote “this is amazing!”.

    Bob used an exclamation point, so I quoted an exclamation. If it is the end of my sentence then I use a full stop, if I quote it then it would imply the end of their sentence even though it wasn’t.

    Frazorth is amazing when he speaks, as I never knew someone could be quite so incoherent.

    Would be quoted as

    Bob said “Frazorth is amazing.”

    It distorts the context.