MHRA Style Citation Demonstration
Click cover to enlarge | According to the MHRA Style Guide, this item should be cited in a bibliography as follows: Messiez, Pablo, Prelec, Alma, and Bastianes, María, ‘Back Matter’, in Pablo Messiez, The Eyes, trans. by Alma Prelec and María Bastianes, with an introduction by María Bastianes, New Translations, 16 (MHRA, 2024), pp. 70–70, doi:10.2307/jj.21995453.7 This is how standard MHRA style would look. Some of its book series (notably Legenda) allow an alternative citation system called 'author-date', but please talk to your editor before using it. (To see the demonstration for author-date, follow this link.) Let's take this bibliography entry one step at a time: Step 1. We start with the name(s) of the author(s) of the article, inverting the first name into the form 'Forename, Surname'. Messiez, Pablo, Prelec, Alma, and Bastianes, María Step 2. This is regular MHRA style, so the name's followed by a comma. Messiez, Pablo, Prelec, Alma, and Bastianes, María, Step 3. Now we add the title, in single inverted commas. Any single quotation marks already in the title must be converted to doubles. Messiez, Pablo, Prelec, Alma, and Bastianes, María, ‘Back Matter’ Step 4. We have to say where this comes from, so: Messiez, Pablo, Prelec, Alma, and Bastianes, María, ‘Back Matter’, in Step 5. Next we identify where the article is to be found, using italics, not quotation marks, for the volume title. Messiez, Pablo, Prelec, Alma, and Bastianes, María, ‘Back Matter’, in Pablo Messiez, The Eyes Step 6. After the title come any editors or translators. Messiez, Pablo, Prelec, Alma, and Bastianes, María, ‘Back Matter’, in Pablo Messiez, The Eyes, trans. by Alma Prelec and María Bastianes, with an introduction by María Bastianes Step 7. This book belongs to a series, so we'll name that. If the series is numbered, we give the number, too. No italics, no quotation marks in the series name. Messiez, Pablo, Prelec, Alma, and Bastianes, María, ‘Back Matter’, in Pablo Messiez, The Eyes, trans. by Alma Prelec and María Bastianes, with an introduction by María Bastianes, New Translations, 16 Step 8. Since this is a book, not a journal issue, we have to identify its source, in round brackets. Until 2024, MHRA style required a place of publication - for example, New York or Oxford. This is no longer given except in special circumstances. Messiez, Pablo, Prelec, Alma, and Bastianes, María, ‘Back Matter’, in Pablo Messiez, The Eyes, trans. by Alma Prelec and María Bastianes, with an introduction by María Bastianes, New Translations, 16 ( Step 9. Now a colon, a space, and the publisher's name. Abbreviating to 'MHRA' is fine here. Messiez, Pablo, Prelec, Alma, and Bastianes, María, ‘Back Matter’, in Pablo Messiez, The Eyes, trans. by Alma Prelec and María Bastianes, with an introduction by María Bastianes, New Translations, 16 (MHRA Step 10. Then the year of first publication, and we're done with the bracketed part. Messiez, Pablo, Prelec, Alma, and Bastianes, María, ‘Back Matter’, in Pablo Messiez, The Eyes, trans. by Alma Prelec and María Bastianes, with an introduction by María Bastianes, New Translations, 16 (MHRA, 2024) Step 11. Now the pagination. And we use 'p.' or 'pp.' as appropriate. Number ranges are elided in the last two digits: thus '2234-2265' should be '2234-65', and '102-109' should be '102-09'. Messiez, Pablo, Prelec, Alma, and Bastianes, María, ‘Back Matter’, in Pablo Messiez, The Eyes, trans. by Alma Prelec and María Bastianes, with an introduction by María Bastianes, New Translations, 16 (MHRA, 2024), pp. 70–70 Step 12. This contribution has a DOI, so the Fourth Edition Guide (2024) requires us to quote it, like so. Messiez, Pablo, Prelec, Alma, and Bastianes, María, ‘Back Matter’, in Pablo Messiez, The Eyes, trans. by Alma Prelec and María Bastianes, with an introduction by María Bastianes, New Translations, 16 (MHRA, 2024), pp. 70–70, doi:10.2307/jj.21995453.7 And that's the finished bibliography entry. Note that there's no final full stop. So how about citations in footnotes or endnotes? In standard MHRA style, the first time the work is cited in a note, it should be cited in full. This looks very like a Bibliography entry, but:
Suppose we want to cite a passage on pages 24 to 27: 34 See Pablo Messiez, Alma Prelec, María Bastianes, ‘Back Matter’, in Pablo Messiez, The Eyes, trans. by Alma Prelec and María Bastianes, with an introduction by María Bastianes, New Translations, 16 (MHRA, 2024), pp. 70–70, doi:10.2307/jj.21995453.7, pp. 24-27. But in any subsequent notes, a heavily abbreviated form is used: 37 Compare Messiez, Prelec, and Bastianes, p. 17. |