The MLA guidelines, published in 2018, have the purpose of helping writers of different styles and with different purposes to avoid complications due to possible errors in writing and especially of being accused of plagiarism because of wrong use of citation, endnotes, footnotes and information within a text. It also helps the reading to be uniformal for all writers, establishing the rules of style text, how to quote within a text so that the reader knows when something is being quoted, or the writer is using his/her own words, etc. One of the points in which MLA stresses its influence is on the correct use of punctuation, especially when there is citation. In this example, the portion within quotation marks needs to follow the punctuation that is established by the original writer, on the part of the one who is using the quotation to support his/her point. Because the quotation is being used as a means to end an idea, and not as a clarification of a set idea, or as an addition to further information, the correct answer is Critics describe her newest play as "a bucket of laughs." because this period whithin the quotation ends the quotation itself.
