MLA Quotation Citation

To properly cite your quotations in your essays, follow these specific MLA guidelines.

Punctuation

Punctuation marks such as periods, commas, and semicolons should appear after the parenthetical citation.

Question marks and exclamation points should appear within the quotation marks if they are a part of the quoted passage but after the parenthetical citation if they are a part of your text.

Example 1: According to some, dreams express "profound aspects of personality" (Foulkes 184), though others disagree.

Example 2: According to Foulkes's study, dreams may express "profound aspects of personality" (184).

Example 3: Is it possible that dreams may express "profound aspects of personality" (Foulkes 184)?

Ellipses

If you omit a word or words from a quotation, you should indicate the deleted word or words by using ellipsis marks, which are three periods ( . . . ) preceded and followed by a space. For example:

Example 1: In an essay on urban legends, Jan Harold Brunvand notes that "some individuals make a point of learning every recent rumor or tale . . . and in a short time a lively exchange of details occurs" (78).

Square Brackets
If you add a word or words in a quotation, you should put brackets around the words to indicate that they are not part of the original text.

Example 1: Jan Harold Brunvand, in an essay on urban legends, states, "some individuals [who retell urban legends] make a point of learning every rumor or tale" (78).

Summary
“Quotation that ends in a period” (246).
"Quotation that ends in an exclamation mark or question?!” (246)
“‘Quotation that is already in quotations’” (246).
“Quotation that needs to be continued with your text” (246), looks like this.
“Quotation that has had...part of the middle of the quotation taken out” (246).
"Quotation that [you] had to change in some small way" (246).

*You can start and stop a quotation whenever you want. Therefore you will never do this: “…Quotation” or this “Quotation…”