MHRA Numeric Citation Style: General Rules, Adapted from MHRA Style Guide)
Please note that the final word on all this is the MHRA Style Guide itself, available from Blackwells for £5.99. Buy it or download from http://www.mhra.org.uk/Downloads/index.html
IMPORTANT NOTE! All of the below refers only to the first time you cite a source. Subsequent citations can be much briefer (e.g. Smith, p.62).
ALSO NOTE:
· If you refer repeatedly to a text –generally a primary text- it’s ok to use parenthetical references in the body of your essay (e.g. (I.ii.32), in the case of a play, or (p.62), in the case of a novel).
· If you refer to several texts by one author, use short titles to avoid ambiguity (e.g. Tess, p.62; Return, p.163)
How to Cite Books [elements in square brackets only apply to some cases]
· author or editors of the book (unless contained in the title)
· title of the book
· [editor, translator of a collection or edition]
· [details of the book’s place within a series, if it’s part of one]
· [details of edition if not the first]
· [number of volumes, if part of a multi-volume work]
· details of publication (place: publisher, date)
· [details of the volume number, if part of a multi-volume work]
· page or pages material comes from
A simple example (this, like other examples, is an adapted version of a real book):
Ian Kershaw, The Nazi Dictatorship: Problems and Perspectives of Interpretation (London: Edward Arnold, 1989), p.59.
A more complex one:
The Works of Thomas Nashe, ed. by R. B. McKerrow, 2nd edn, 5 vols (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1953-57), III (1955), pp. 95-96.
And another:
Carlos Fuentes, Aura, ed. by Peter Standish, Durham Modern Language Series: I (Durham: University of Durham, 1986), pp. 12-16
How to Cite Book Chapters
· author or authors of the chapter
· title of the chapter
· title of the book
· editor or editors of the whole book
· details of publication (place: publisher, date)
· pages on which the chapter appears
· page or pages material comes from
K. Verdery, ‘Fuzzy Property: Rights, Power and Identity in Transylvania’s Decollectivization’, in Transforming Post-Communist Political Economies, ed. by J.M. Nelson (Washington: National Academy Press, 1998), pp. 144-189 (p. 150).
How to Cite Journal Articles
· author or authors of the article
· title of the article
· title of the journal
· volume number
· date of publication
· issue number
· pages on which the article appears
· page or pages material comes from
J.S. Buyer, ‘Rapid Sample Processing and Fast Gas Chromatography for Identification of Bacteria by Fatty Acid Analysis’, Journal of Microbiological Methods, 51 (2002), pp. 209-215 (p. 210).
How to Cite Newspaper or Magazine Articles
· author or authors of the article
· title of the article
· title of the publication
· date of publication (day, month, year)
· [section of the publication]
· pages on which the article appears
Michael Schmidt, ‘Tragedy of Three Star-Crossed Lovers’, Daily Telegraph, 1 February 1990, p. 14.
How to Cite Electronic Material
· author or authors of item
· title of item
· [title of complete work/resource]
· [publication details, if available (volume, issue, date for online journal articles; otherwise just date if available)]
· full address (URL) of resource <in angle brackets>
· Date consulted [in square brackets]
· [Location of passage cited (in parentheses)]
An example of an online article:
Steve Sohmer, ‘The Lunar Calendar of Shakespeare’s King Lear’, Early Modern Literary Studies, 5.2 (1999) http://purl.oclc.org/emls/05-2/sohmlear.htm [accessed 28 January 2000] (para. 3 of 17)
An example of a literary work contained in a database:
E. E. Cummings, ‘maggie and milly and molly and may’, Literature Online <http://lion.chadwyck.co.uk> [accessed 5 June 2001]
An example of material taken from the world wide web:
Darran Oisin Anderson, ‘George Orwell’s Influences’, George Orwell <http://www.k-1.com/Orwell/site/opinion/essays/anderson1.html> [accessed 15 November 2004]