How do I cite, in MLA format, a quote that is already in parentheses?
In principle, I agree that “However you feel like is almost certainly good enough for a conference paper or seminar paper, so long as it’s clear that you’re giving the original author the credit.” But this: when he says, on page 23, “Blah,” bothers me. One of the functions of the MLA citation format (and other citation formats) is to separate the not-in-itself-meaningful apparatus for locating citations (page numbers, line numbers) from your discourse about the cited text. Unless you are trying to make a point about the fact that this quotation falls on page 23, leave the page number coralled in its own parentheses or square brackets.
