The MHRA referencing style is what is known as a 'notes and bibliography' style.
When you refer to another person’s ideas or information you must acknowledge the source using a superscript number (above the line) placed after a direct quote or paraphrase. This refers readers to the corresponding footnote at the bottom of the page, or endnote at the end of your assignment. You must also list the sources in alphabetical order (by surname of the author) in a reference list or bibliography at the end of your assignment.
In-text citations
In-text citations in MHRA typically use footnotes or endnotes rather than author-date parenthetical citations. This means that whenever you refer to a source in your text, you will place a superscript number (1, 2, 3, etc.) at the relevant point in the sentence. This number corresponds to a footnote or endnote at the bottom of the corresponding page, where the full details of the source are provided.
The footnotes/endnotes include essential details such as the author’s name (or editor if applicable), title of the work (italicized or with quotation marks), place of publication, publisher, year of publication, and specific page numbers if referencing a direct quote or specific passage. For subsequent citations of the same source, you can use a shortened form, usually just the author’s surname and a short title.
Below is an example of how this may look -
Bibliography
At the end of your document or chapter, you should include a bibliography which lists all the sources you have cited in full detail. The entries in the bibliography should be organized alphabetically by the author’s surname or editor’s name if no author is provided. Each entry in the bibliography should follow a consistent format as prescribed by MHRA guidelines.
A bibliography entry will look almost identical to a footnote, with the main difference being the author's surname being listed first in a bibliography (the first name is listed first in a footnote), and page or paragraph numbers of individual quotes are omitted.
Below is an example of how an MHRA bibliography may be set out -
Multiple works by the same author
When you have multiple works by the same author, list them in alphabetical order from the title (excluding A, An, The). Give the name of the author in the first citation only, in later citations replace the author’s name with a long dash (a 2-em dash), as follows -
Consecutive references from the same source
If you have consecutive references from the same source, instead of writing the author's name again, you can use the word 'Ibid', which is latin for 'in the same place'.
It would look as follows -
