You may have to use the MHRA referencing system if you are studying in the humanities. But how do you format an MHRA bibliography? Read on to find out.
MHRA referencing is a citation system created by the Modern Humanities Research Association. It uses a footnote and bibliography format, where you cite sources in footnotes and list all the sources you’ve used in your work.
The bibliography is vital as it means readers can check your sources. It also helps you avoid accidental plagiarism by clearly showing the sources you’ve used.
Typically, you can find information on how to list sources in your university’s style guide. However, MHRA style has a few specific rules you should follow. We will explain the basics format for an MHRA-style bibliography below.
The standard formatting rules for an MHRA bibliography or reference list are:
Some universities allow you to include sources you have read as research but not cited. Make sure you check your style guide, though, to see if this is permitted.
The two key rules for author names in an MHRA bibliography are:
In both cases, you should invert the first name and surname of the first listed author so the source can be listed alphabetically by surname. If a source has more than one author, though, you can give the other names in the standard order:
Mittelbach, Margaret, and Michael Crewdson, Carnivorous Nights (Edinburgh: Canongate, 2006)
To reference more than one work by the same author, meanwhile, use two em dashes to replace the author’s name after the first entry:
Woolf, Virginia, Mrs Dalloway (London: Penguin, 1967)
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——, To the Lighthouse (London: Penguin, 1974)
Moreover, as shown in the example above, works by a single author should be grouped together and arranged in alphabetical order by title.
Bibliography entries in MHRA style are similar to the first footnote citation for each source. In both cases, you will need to provide full publication information for the source in question. However, the way you present this information differs slightly:
You can see how these differences would appear for a book below.
Footnote Citation
1. Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse (London: Penguin, 1974), p. 66.
Bibliography Entry
Woolf, Virginia, To the Lighthouse (London: Penguin, 1974)
The exact format for each entry will depend on the source type. For advice on a range of source types, check out our other posts on MHRA referencing.
Hopefully, this guide has helped you to format your MHRA-style bibliography. If you’d like to be sure your writing is error free, though, our expert proofreaders can help. Upload a 500-word trial document today to see how this works.
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