Introduction

Style guides cover matters such as spellings, punctuation, and bibliographical references in writing that is meant for publication, whether in print or electronic form. The MHRA Style Guide is intended primarily for use in connection with the Modern Humanities Research Association’s own books and periodicals, and it opens with a summary of the main points to be noted by authors using MHRA style. It is hoped that it will also be widely useful to students and other authors, to editors, and to publishers of texts written mainly in English.

The Style Guide is the successor to the MHRA Style Book, first published in 1971 under the editorship of A. S. Maney and R. L. Smallwood, and revised in later editions. This third edition takes account of comments and suggestions made by users of the second edition of 2008, and we are grateful for these. It has been updated in order to take account of the increased use of electronic means of text preparation, submission, and publication. Some sections have been revised for the sake of clarity and completeness. Material that seemed redundant has been removed; in particular, the former chapter on the preparation of theses has been deleted because research students can now expect their university to supply them with guidelines on the institution’s preferred style.

Any comments and suggestions for amendments or additions will be welcomed and may be sent to style@mhra.org.uk.

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