MHRA Style Citation Demonstration
Click cover to enlarge | According to the MHRA Style Guide, this item should be cited in a bibliography as follows: Ritterson, Michael, ‘Front Matter’, in Wilhelm Raabe, The Birdsong Papers, trans. by Michael Ritterson, New Translations, 4 (MHRA, 2013), pp. i–iv, doi:10.2307/j.ctt4cg928.1 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'. Ritterson, Michael Step 2. This is regular MHRA style, so the name's followed by a comma. Ritterson, Michael, Step 3. Now we add the title, in single inverted commas. Any single quotation marks already in the title must be converted to doubles. Ritterson, Michael, ‘Front Matter’ Step 4. We have to say where this comes from, so: Ritterson, Michael, ‘Front Matter’, in Step 5. Next we identify where the article is to be found, using italics, not quotation marks, for the volume title. Ritterson, Michael, ‘Front Matter’, in Wilhelm Raabe, The Birdsong Papers Step 6. After the title come any editors or translators. Ritterson, Michael, ‘Front Matter’, in Wilhelm Raabe, The Birdsong Papers, trans. by Michael Ritterson 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. Ritterson, Michael, ‘Front Matter’, in Wilhelm Raabe, The Birdsong Papers, trans. by Michael Ritterson, New Translations, 4 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. Ritterson, Michael, ‘Front Matter’, in Wilhelm Raabe, The Birdsong Papers, trans. by Michael Ritterson, New Translations, 4 ( Step 9. Now a colon, a space, and the publisher's name. Abbreviating to 'MHRA' is fine here. Ritterson, Michael, ‘Front Matter’, in Wilhelm Raabe, The Birdsong Papers, trans. by Michael Ritterson, New Translations, 4 (MHRA Step 10. Then the year of first publication, and we're done with the bracketed part. Ritterson, Michael, ‘Front Matter’, in Wilhelm Raabe, The Birdsong Papers, trans. by Michael Ritterson, New Translations, 4 (MHRA, 2013) 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'. Ritterson, Michael, ‘Front Matter’, in Wilhelm Raabe, The Birdsong Papers, trans. by Michael Ritterson, New Translations, 4 (MHRA, 2013), pp. i–iv Step 12. This contribution has a DOI, so the Fourth Edition Guide (2024) requires us to quote it, like so. Ritterson, Michael, ‘Front Matter’, in Wilhelm Raabe, The Birdsong Papers, trans. by Michael Ritterson, New Translations, 4 (MHRA, 2013), pp. i–iv, doi:10.2307/j.ctt4cg928.1 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 Michael Ritterson, ‘Front Matter’, in Wilhelm Raabe, The Birdsong Papers, trans. by Michael Ritterson, New Translations, 4 (MHRA, 2013), pp. i–iv, doi:10.2307/j.ctt4cg928.1, pp. 24-27. But in any subsequent notes, a heavily abbreviated form is used: 37 Compare Ritterson, p. 17. |