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!
This isn’t what you’re asking, but since your question has been answered, and this might actually be helpful for you:
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?