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!
Period comes after the parentheses. https://guides.libraries.psu.edu/mlacitation/intext
Direct quote:
One study found that “the listener’s familiarity with the topic of discourse greatly facilitates the interpretation of the entire message” (Gass and Varonis 85).
Thank you! This was driving me nuts lol
Wow, I really want to correct the original authors’s grammar. Why use “instantiation” instead of “instance”?
That’s what [sic] is for. Well, not for correcting, but for dunking on.
I’ve never heard it put that way, and you’re not wrong. I’m pretty sure it was intended to mean “that’s not our typo, we’re just quoting the idiot.”
This isn’t what you’re asking, but since your question has been answered, and this might actually be helpful for you:
Sorry for asking something that boils down to “please help me with my homework” but I’m at a loss.
You should put a comma before “but”. Like so:
Sorry for asking something that boils down to “please help me with my homework”, but I’m at a loss.
A comma is required when you are separating clauses which would be complete sentences. “I’m at a loss” is a complete sentence, so there should be a comma before the “but”.
This is a rule about English I absolutely despise and generally refuse to follow (makes me twitch as a programmer), but shouldn’t the punctuation (the comma you added) go inside the quotes?