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!
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
That’s what [sic] is for. Well, not for correcting, but for dunking on.
I’ve never heard it put that way, and you’re not wrong. I’m pretty sure it was intended to mean “that’s not our typo, we’re just quoting the idiot.”
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.