I am writing an research paper for something, and I need to make an in-text citation because I made a direct quote. What are the grammar rules relating to in-text citation? Where would the quotation marks and period go after the citation. How do I write an in-text citation correctly?

Thanks.

Since you are restating the idea in your own words instead of quoting it, do not use quotation marks. Always use in-text citations when you paraphrase or summarize so that the reader will know that the information comes from another source!

The final period or comma goes inside the quotation marks, even if it is not a part of the quoted material unless the quotation is followed by a citation. If a citation in parentheses follows the quotation, the period follows the citation.

APA in-text citation style uses the author's last name and the year of publication, for example: (Field, 2005). For direct quotations, include the page number as well, for example: (Field, 2005, p. 14). For sources such as websites and e-books that have no page numbers, use a paragraph number.

quite an interesting way to teach topic sentences, because the answer to this question is the best definition of a topic sentence that one can present, it is as if answering the questions taught you how to do it, this is some real teaching, it is terribly well-done.

the topic sentence in this paragraph is:

topic sentences writers stay on track and keep a paragraph from becoming an aimless collection of sentences about an idea.

which incidentally tells you what a topic sentence should be.