Observations concerning essays
1. Punctuation of titles.
Short stories are in “quotation marks.”
Novels are italicized .
2. Citation format
Cite by paragraph (par. 14)
When citing novels use author and page #
For example:
(Hemingway 14) not (page 14), (p. 14), (pp. 14), (pg.
14) etc.
3. Citation placement
The tale opens with a gruesome explanation of how the father kills, skins, and bruises the "rat like" (par. 43) bodies of the foxes.
BETTER:
The tale opens with a gruesome explanation of how the father kills, skins, and bruises the "rat like" bodies of the foxes (par. 43).
Here we get the quote directly next to the noun it is describing without interrupting the flow of the sentence.
4. Quotes and quotes within quotes.
When you are quoting a simple line of dialogue, it is still just a single quote.
INCORRECT:

Replying to this request, the narrator confesses, "" The truth is, cathedrals don't mean anything to me. Nothing.
Cathedrals. They're something to look at tat on late night
TV.
""
That's just a single quote.
Even when the father insults her at the end of the story by saying, "' She's only a girl '"(par. 432), she resigns herself to the fact that he might be right.
CORRECT:
Replying to this request, the narrator confesses, "The truth is, cathedrals don't mean anything to me. Nothing.
Cathedrals. They're something to look at at on late night
TV" (par. 12).
Even when the father insults her at the end of the story by saying, "She's only a girl"(par.32), she resigns herself to the fact that he might be right.
Here's where you actually have a quote within a quote:
June May, reflecting on her ability to communicate, says, "I try to think of all the Cantonese words I can say to her, stuff I learned from friends in Chinatown, but all I can think of are swear words, terms for body functions, and short phrases like 'tastes good, tastes like garbage, and she's really ugly'"(par. 209).