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”?
Stuffy, self-important academic tomes require big words to make simple points
My personal pet peeve is people using “societal” when “social” is just as appropriate.
Mine is sate vs satiate
I can see the distinction mattering. “Instantiation” implies an act. Something did the instantiating. “Instance” doesn’t have the same implication of an agent.
Question was answered, but I’m wondering about the citation. What is the number three in parenthesis? MLA is name of source and possibly page number.
Its the page number, the author and source were mentioned in the sentence previous to this one
Ah, right. I completely overlooked that. Since it was such a low number, I thought it might be a numbered source