1. QUOTATION TOOLS PARENTHESES ( ) ELLIPSES/ELLIPSIS POINTS …
in-text citations
ELLIPSES/ELLIPSIS POINTS …
removal of words, phrases, clauses, and sentences
BRACKETS [ ]
alteration or clarification of quoted material

2. PARENTHESES USAGE
Medical thinking, trapped in the theory of astral influence, considered air as the communicator of disease, ignoring sanitation or visible carriers Barbara Tuchman, pages
Analyzing plagues in the Middle Ages, Barbara Tuchman writes, “Medical thinking, trapped in the theory of astral influence, considered air as the communicator of disease, ignoring sanitation or visible carriers” ( ).
Notice that the parenthetical citation sits within sentence. If this were an online document without page numbers, you would include the abbreviate par. and the paragraph number(s) where cited material came from:
“Medical thinking, trapped in the theory of astral influence, considered air as the communicator of disease, ignoring sanitation or visible carriers” (par. 4), writes Barbara Tuchman about plagues in the Middle Age.
From MLA Handbook (5th ed.): “[Y]ou should reproduce internal punctuation exactly as in the original. The closing punctuation, though, depends on where the quoted material appears in your sentence” (91).

3. ELLIPSIS USAGE THREE MARKS VS. FOUR MARKS
During the past two decades, rhetoric about the “free market” has cloaked changes in the nation’s economy that bear little relation to real competition or freedom of choice. From the airline industry to the publishing business, from the railroad to telecommunications, American corporations have worked hard to avoid the rigors of the market by eliminating and absorbing their rivals —Schlosser, page 120
“From the airline industry to the publishing business,… American corporations have worked hard to avoid the rigors of the market by eliminating and absorbing their rivals” (Schlosser 120).
Schlosser says, “changes in the nation’s economy… bear little relation to real competition…. American corporations have worked hard to avoid the rigors of the market by eliminating and absorbing their rivals” (120).

4. USAGE OF BRACKETS CLARIFYING WORD/TERM, ALTERING VERB TENSE & REPLACING PRONOUN W/ ANTECEDENT
In Glouster and other neighboring counties, the deer often came to eat their grain, the wolves to destroy their sheep, and the foxes to catch their poultry —David Hughes, page 58
Farmers in the county still have trouble with the local fauna; today is little different than when David Hughes summarized the common plight of farmers living in the south of England: “In Glouster [a county just south of Sussex] and other neighboring counties, the deer often [come] to eat [the farmers’] grain, the wolves to destroy their sheep, and the foxes to catch their poultry” (58).

5. USAGE OF BRACKETS ALTERING CASE & RECOGNIZING ERROR IN TEXT
During the past two decades, rhetoric about the “free market” has cloaked changes in the nation’s economy that bear little relation to real competition or freeedom of choice. From the airline industry to the publishing business, from the railroad to telecommunications, American corporations have worked hard to avoid the rigors of the market by eliminating and absorbing their rivals” —Schlosser, page 120
“[R]hetoric about the ‘free market’ has cloaked changes in the nation’s economy that bear little relation to… freeedom [sic] of choice” (120), says Eric Schlosser, ultimately showing that McDonald’s success (dominance of market) is partly owing to a marketplace that seems not only to tolerate but to encourage the growth of monopolies.

6. word had been “reflecting”
Goreman explains that the emotional and rational minds work together while, “Still… each, as we shall see, [reflects] the operation of distinct, but interconnected, circuitry in the brain” (9).
no space
one space
no space
A spaces is never placed immediately after an initial quotation mark; a space is never placed before a terminal quotation mark.