Writing help-how to "quote" something in a paper

[LuvOrlando]

I don't exactly understand why you are being so accusative...I simply was trying to give the best advice to the OP and her son. I don't think you understand what I am saying. OBVIOUSLY, one doesn't cite a character's voice. HOWEVER, the presence of the triple quotes indicates that the OP's son planned on chopping off the quote after the character's line-- NOT including more text. Therefore, the citation would be needed. You yourself proved this with your "examples." (Not "exceptions.") *** Didn't realize you weren't the one to provide the helpful examples. That was another correct and extremely helpful PP. You also said you addressed "exceptions apply" in your original post-- you did not. Anyway, citing a quote is not an exception. It's the rule. You use another author's words-- you give them credit.
Please don't be patronizing and say that you're trying to "give me a graceful exit." I never said you were wrong. I simply said, if you are quoting an author, you cite it. When you cite something (except in the case of a block quote, long stanzas of poetry, or the quote ends in an ellipses), the period goes after the parenthetical citation.
As far as "agreeing with the experts," I am a book editor. I fix grammar for a living. I also tutor middle and high schoolers on the side.
*** I don't exactly get what you're saying about prose:
Every novel I've ever read, and most essays, and the play my own DS12 just submitted to his teacher today all have quotation marks without a citation, it all depends on WHAT is being written.
Obviously a novel doesn't cite itself. A novel, however, uses simply double quotes when a character is speaking (not the triple, as when one is citing another source). Clearly, the OP's son was writing a paper and CITING something an author from another work said (hence, why the OP was concerned about the quotation marks/punctuation). Plays never use quotation marks, unless a character is referring to something someone else said.
I really don't understand why you're attacking me. I never said you were wrong or that I disagree with MLA (you pulled that one out of nowhere). I support my livelihood agreeing with Chicago and other manuals of style.

Also, I really can't believe I am letting you upset me this much, LuvOrlando, but I pulled out my copy of the MLA handbook (5th edition, we use Chicago primarily at work). I really don't understand why you feel the need to be so hostile...

In 2.7.2 it clearly states "If a quotation ending a sentence requires a parenthetical reference, place the sentence period after the reference."

2.7.7: "By convention, commas and periods that directly follow quotations go inside the closing quotation marks, but a parenthetical reference should intervene between the quotation and the required punctuation. Thus, if a quotation ends with a period, the period appears after the reference."

5.1: "You must indicate to your readers not only what works you used in writing the paper but also exactly what you derived from each source and exactly where in the work you found the material. The most practical way to supply this information is to insert a brief parenthetical acknowledgment in your paper whenever you incorporate another's words, facts, or ideas."

1. OP said her son was writing a paper and quoting from another paper/book.
2. Therefore, he must cite his source.
3. Unless he introduced it in the way that I stated in my Mrs. Dalloway example (just as the examples given in 2.7.2-- "Joseph Conrads writes of the company manger in Heart of Darkness, "He was obeyed, yet he inspired neither love nor fear, nor even respect."), he NEEDS TO CITE IT PARENTHETICALLY .
4. Therefore, the period goes outside of the parenthesis.

Because your reply immediately following mine made it a point to state what MLA ACTUALLY says, as opposed to the misinformation implied that I was disseminating. I don't like that so much so I tend to get uppity about it. For the record, I don't like it when it happens to me or when it happens to other people but, for obvious reasons, I especially dislike it when it happens to me. If you don't want people to point out the plank in your eye don't point out the splinter in theirs, KWIM.