Referencing and Citations
Referencing
Why reference?
From reading academic articles and books, you should be familiar with the scholarly practice of making references in the text to other people's work and providing listings of relevant source material at the end of the text.
Why is this done?
- To enable someone reading the document to find the material you have referred to or consulted
- To demonstrate your width of reading and knowledge about a subject
- To support and / or develop points made in the text
- To avoid accusations of plagiarism: using somebody else's work without acknowledging the fact
Citation style
A citation style is a system for formatting references, whether in the main text of an essay, in the footnotes, or in the bibliography. It covers such things as the order of information in the citation style, the length of the citation, and the use of capitalisation and italics.
A common style used in the humanities is known as the MHRA style, so-called because it is administered by the Modern Humanities Research Association, a scholarly association based in the UK. Below are some examples of citations formatted in the MHRA style.
A book:
Tom McArthur, Worlds of Reference: Lexicography, Learning and Language from the Clay Tablet to the Computer (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986), p. 59.
A chapter in an edited book:
Martin Elsky, 鈥榃ords, Things, and Names: Jonson鈥檚 Poetry and Philosophical Grammar鈥�, in Classic and Cavalier: Essays on Jonson and the Sons of Ben, ed. by Claude J. Summers and Ted-Larry Pebworth (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1982), pp. 31鈥�55 (p. 41).
A journal article:
Robert F. Cook, 鈥楤audouin de Sebourc: un po猫me 茅difiant?鈥�, Olifant, 14 (1989), 115鈥�35 (pp. 118鈥�19).
These examples are taken from the MHRA Style Guide, the third (2013) edition of which is available . For a short summary of the guide, see pages 3 to 8. For more detail on referencing, see pages 58 to 82.
Another citation style often used by historians is the one in the , published by the University of Chicago Press and currently in its seventeenth edition. This style is subtly different from the MHRA style, as you can see by comparing the below citations with the ones above:
A book:
Tom McArthur, Worlds of Reference: Lexicography, Learning and Language from the Clay Tablet to the Computer (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986), 59.
A chapter in an edited book:
Martin Elsky, 鈥淲ords, Things, and Names: Jonson鈥檚 Poetry and Philosophical Grammar,鈥� in Classic and Cavalier: Essays on Jonson and the Sons of Ben, ed. Claude J. Summers and Ted-Larry Pebworth (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1982), 41.
A journal article:
Robert F. Cook, 鈥淏audouin de Sebourc: un po猫me 茅difiant?鈥�, Olifant 14 (1989): 118鈥�19.
Which citation style should you use?
The History Department recommends (but does not require) that you use MHRA. No matter which style you use, we do require that students:
- use the same style throughout any given essay.
- use a recognised style for citations rather than inventing your own style 鈥� the MHRA and Chicago style guides are examples.
- use footnotes for citations rather than in-text citations, such as the administered by the American Psychological Association (the APA style is widely used in the social sciences but rarely in the humanities).
- include a bibliography at the end of each essay, i.e. a list of the works you have cited in the course of the essay, in alphabetical order by the surname of the author.