MHRA Style Citation Demonstration

According to the MHRA Style Guide, this item should be cited in a bibliography as follows:

Betts, C. J.. 1985. ‘On the Beginning and Ending of "Candide"’, in Modern Language Review, 80.2, pp. 283–92, doi:10.2307/3728661

This is in the author-date variant of MHRA style. MHRA's journals don't allow author-date citation, but some of its book series (notably Legenda) do: please talk to your editor before using this. (To see the demonstration for regular style instead, 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'.

Betts, C. J.

Step 2. In author-date style, we have a full stop, then the year, then another full stop. If there are multiple entries with the same author and year, letters would be used to distinguish them: e.g., Bloggs 1994a, Bloggs 1994b.

Betts, C. J.. 1985.

Step 3. Now we add the title, in single inverted commas. Any single quotation marks already in the title must be converted to doubles.

Betts, C. J.. 1985. ‘On the Beginning and Ending of "Candide"’

Step 4. We have to say where this comes from, so:

Betts, C. J.. 1985. ‘On the Beginning and Ending of "Candide"’, in

Step 5. Next we identify where the article is to be found, using italics, not quotation marks, for the volume title.

Betts, C. J.. 1985. ‘On the Beginning and Ending of "Candide"’, in Modern Language Review, 80.2

Step 6. Now the pagination. And we use 'p.' or 'pp.' as appropriate. Journal articles used to omit 'pp.' in MHRA Style, but the Fourth Edition Guide (2024) removes this exception, so now page ranges in journals are treated just the same as in books. Number ranges are elided in the last two digits: thus '2234-2265' should be '2234-65', and '102-109' should be '102-09'.

Betts, C. J.. 1985. ‘On the Beginning and Ending of "Candide"’, in Modern Language Review, 80.2, pp. 283–92

Step 7. This contribution has a DOI, so the Fourth Edition Guide (2024) requires us to quote it, like so.

Betts, C. J.. 1985. ‘On the Beginning and Ending of "Candide"’, in Modern Language Review, 80.2, pp. 283–92, doi:10.2307/3728661

And that's the finished bibliography entry. Note that there's no final full stop.

So how about citations in the main text, or in footnotes or endnotes?

The advantage of the author-date system is that these are very concise. In fact, you don't need a note at all. Suppose we quote from page 21:

The author reminds us of Shakespeare’s view: ‘Better a foolish wit than a witty fool’ (Betts 1985: 21).

And notes are concise too. There's no difference in how to treat the first and subsequent notes.

34 Betts 1985.

So is author-date easier than regular MHRA style? Not always. Firstly, it may not be allowed by your editor, so check before using. But secondly, it makes books easier to write, but only at the cost of making them harder to proof-read. If you discover at the last moment that Blenkinsop 1996 was actually published in 1995, that can mean hundreds of corrections to make, and it gets worse if an author has many publications in the same year, because Blenkinsop 1996e and Blenkinsop 1996d are easy to confuse.
https://www.mhra.org.uk/publications/Modern-Language-Review-80-2/author-date-style-tutorial-3
www.mhra.org.uk
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