A simple principle applies for what seems like a thorny issue: Nest punctuation that appears within punctuation by alternating punctuation marks to disambiguate–in this case,… Read More
If you need to shorten a title within quotation marks that begins with a title in quotation marks, use the title within the title as… Read More
If you need to shorten a title enclosed in quotation marks that begins with a quotation, use the title within the title as the short… Read More
Yes, an essay may start with a block quotation. The quotation should be important to your discussion and referred to in your prose. This distinguishes it… Read More
To cite an excerpt from an anthology, follow the MLA format template. You will likely list a description in place of a title: De Quincey, Thomas. Read More
The MLA Handbook notes, “By convention, commas and periods that directly follow quotations go inside the closing quotation marks” (267). Thus, in the following sentence, the comma… Read More
As the MLA Handbook notes, “When a source has no page numbers or any other kind of part number, no number should be given in a parenthetical… Read More
Nonconsecutive page numbers are presented in the same order as the quotations to which they refer: As Ann Smith notes, some scholars contend that “the… Read More
When a verb in a quotation does not fit syntactically into your sentence, you may use brackets to change the tense: If Charles Dickens were… Read More
How you punctuate quoted dialogue from a novel will depend on what you are quoting and how you are quoting it. See the three most… Read More