Place the period outside the quotation marks if a parenthetical citation appears after a direct quotation. Example: Their focus on writing as a discipline can be linked with Faigley's (1986) belief ...

Continue this pattern, using closing quotation marks only at the very end of the quoted material. Placement with other punctuation: A period or comma always go inside closing quotation marks. ("We ...

Note the order of the punctuation: Quotation mark, citation, and then period. If only part of a quote is needed, it is possible to omit information and replace it with ellipses. Ellipses (. . .) are ...

Most often, commas and periods go within the quotation marks ... If the sentence containing the dialogue is a question, then the question mark goes outside of the quotation marks.

Exception: In MLA citations, the period follows the parentheses. Ex: Tessie Hutchinson protested, "It isn't fair" (Jackson 346). Colons and semicolons are always placed outside quotation marks. Ex: ...