Introduction
The aim of this essay is to offer a short introduction to the origins, purpose, and importance of MHRA referencing. MHRA is a footnote style of referencing often used in the Humanities. It works by placing superscript numbers in the body of the text which relate to notes at the end of each page, which cite the resources used. To this end:
A footnote is referenced at the end of the sentence, like this.1
If the above, was an actual reference, the number would then correspond to an actual source at the bottom of the page. Once the origin, definition, and importance of MHRA referencing has been explained, the essay will then go on to demonstrate how best to use MHRA referencing in academic writing.
Origin, Definition, and Importance
MHRA referencing was developed by the Modern Humanities Research Association (MHRA), from which the name of the referencing system derives. The MHRA is a learned society with charitable status founded at Christ’s College, Cambridge in the summer of 1918 with the purpose of promoting European scholarship and the humanities, particularly literature and languages.2 The organisation is best known for producing the MHRA Style Guide: A Handbook for Authors, Editors, and Writers of Theses.3 MHRA referencing was first codified in 1971 in the MHRA Style Book edited by A.S. Maney and R.L. Smallwood for the organisation’s own use.4 Since then, it has been employed more widely and, today, many universities require dissertations to follow MHRA referencing.
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The widespread use of modern word processing software from the 2000s onwards led to a resurgence in the use of footnotes and endnote, making MHRA referencing and other forms of referencing that use them more popular than ever before.5 Footnotes are used in MHRA referencing to keep bibliographic details out of the flow of the text and to add additional information that may not easily fit into the body of the work.6 This also means that if the essay, article, or dissertation has a set word count, it is not wasted on in-text referencing.
When people refer to MHRA referencing, they usually mean the footnote-bibliography version, where sources are cited in footnotes. However, there is also an author-date version of MHRA referencing set out in the style guide, but this is much less common in practice.7 There are some key differences between the footnote-bibliography version and the author-date versions of MHRA referencing. In the author-date style, short citations are given in parenthesis within the text. In both versions, a bibliography is added at the end of the document.8 In the author-date style, when an author’s name is given within the text, it should not be repeated within the citation. It is given as (Surname Year: page), for example (Peers and Shields 2008: 86). The entry given in the bibliography in author-date style also varies from the footnotes-bibliography style as in author-date, entries are given as:
Surname, First Name. Year. Title (Place: Publisher).
So, for example:
Peers, Richard, and Shields, Graham. 2008. Cite them Right: The Essential Referencing Guide (Durham: Pear Tree Books).
The footnotes style of MHRA referencing has the advantage of saving space both in the main body and the footnotes of the essay, article, or dissertation. The first footnote citation must be made in full but is abbreviated if cited again. Subsequent entries for the same source can be abbreviated to the author’s surname and the first few words of the little, plus a page number of the text, if a specific part is cited. For example:
Richard Peers & Graham Shields, Cite them Right: The Essential Referencing Guide (Durham: Pear Tree Books, 2008), p.86.
Can be subsequently abbreviated to:
Peers & Shields, Cite them Right, p.86
This form of abbreviated citations was developed to replace op. cit. (from Latin opere citato, meaning ‘in the word cited’), as used in earlier publications because it is more precise.9 If two or more consecutive references are from the same source, then the second (or others) are cited ibid (from the Latin ibidern ‘in the same place’).10
To understand how to best employ MHRA referencing (footnotes-bibliography style), below is a short essay that demonstrates how it should be used in academic writing.
Example: A History of the Modern Humanities Research Association
The Modern Humanities Research Association (MHRA) was founded in the rooms of Brian Downs, a College Fellow at Christ’s College, Cambridge, who later became Vice Chancellor, in the summer of 1918.11 On that occasion, Downs and a small group of colleagues founded the organisation to establish the modern and medieval languages and literatures on an equal footing to the established discipline of Classical studies, which, at that time, was considered to the pinnacle of scholarship. They believed that the foundation of an association of scholars dedicated to the modern languages on the basis of interdisciplinary study with its own publication could further the interests of the academic discipline and give them newfound respectability alongside more established humanities subjects.12 The term ‘modern humanities’ rather than ‘modern languages’ was used in the title as the latter was thought to be suggestive of school teaching, rather than university study.13
Significantly, the MHRA was one of the first scholarly associations to recognise the importance and value of interdisciplinary study, which is now an integral part of academic life.14 Later on, in his address to the American Branch of the MHRA in 1971, John H. Fisher explained that the original founding members of the organisation, most of whom were younger faculty members and graduate students felt that the way forward for the modern languages was not in:
...Philological study of the modern languages pursued in imitation of the classics, nor in inspirational teaching in the Arnoldian tradition, but rather...in research to learn more about literature and language and in the publication of this research for the benefit of other scholars.15
The foundation of the organisation was also grounded in the conviction that research improves teaching.16 Therefore, from its inception, the MHRA endorsed the values that inform modern scholarship.
Up until 1945, the MHRA’s main activity was editing the Modern Languages Review and bibliographies of English studies and modern languages.17 Between that date and the late 1960s was perhaps the most significant period in the MHRA’s history as during this time it is ‘energetically renewed and expanded’ mainly through the efforts of one man, Dr Stanley C. Aston, Fellow of St Catharine’s College, Cambridge.18 One of his goals for the MHRA was to build up contacts and found branches of the organisation abroad, most notably its American Branch which initially flourished but shut down in the 2000s due to changes in professional attitudes among the younger generation, with a greater emphasis on publishing rather than building social contacts with other academics.19 Under the leadership of Aston, the MHRA also united with other academic organisations in other humanities disciplines. For example, the MHRA was one of the founder member-associations of the International Federation for Modern Languages and Literatures (FILLM), which had been re-founded after the Second World War under the guidance of the International Council for Philosophy and Humanistic Studies (CIPSH), the non-governmental organisation that represents the humanities for UNESCO.20 Thanks to Aston’s dynamic leadership, today the MHRA is an international organisation with members from all over the world.
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In 1971, the MHRA published guidance on its in-house referencing style which later became popular with universities as a way of referencing dissertations.21 The publication of the MHRA Style Guide remains the organisation’s most notable achievement. One of the key activities of the MHRA today is publishing seven scholarly journals. These are: Annual Bibliography of English Language and Literature, Modern Language Review, Austrian Studies, Portuguese Studies, The Slavonic and East European Review, The Yearbook of English Studies, and the Year’s Work in Modern Language Studies. The MHRA also publishes several book series including: Legenda (imprint), Publications of the MHRA, MHRA Texts & Dissertations, MHRA Bibliographies, MHRA Critical Texts, MHRA European Translations, MHRA New Translations, and MHRA Tudor & Student Translations. In the present day, the MHRA is a key source of financial and academic support to scholars in an area of study increasingly under threat on a national level, particularly in the area of modern languages.22
Conclusion
To inform the reader about MHRA referencing (footnote-bibliography), this example essay has explored some of the background behind this form of referencing and the differences between the more common form of MHRA referencing, footnote-bibliography, and its other form, author-date. The previous paragraphs have also demonstrated that the advantage of MHRA referencing lies in how it is cited in footnotes, rather than text, thereby ensuring that the word count is not wasted on referencing. MHRA referencing also allows the writer to, after the full citation of the text in footnotes, move to abbreviated forms for any follow-up citations.
To demonstrate the effective use of MHRA referencing in academic writing, the work presented a brief history of the Modern Humanities Research Association (MHRA). MHRA referencing (footnotes-bibliography) was used throughout the text, demonstrating how this form of referencing can be used effectively in academic writing.
1 Catherine Bates & Abi Matthewman, Studying Arts and Humanities (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009), p.115.
2 MHRA, ‘History.’ (2020).
3 Proofed, ‘What is MHRA Referencing?’ Proofread my Essay, 3 July 2017.
4 Modern Humanities Research Association, MHRA Style Guide: A Handbook for Authors and Editors, 3rd edn. (London: Modern Humanities Research Association, 2013), p.1
5 Richard Peers & Graham Shields, Cite them Right: The Essential Referencing Guide (Durham: Pear Tree Books, 2008), p.86.
6 Ibid.
7 Proofed, ‘What is MHRA.’
8 University of St Andrews, ‘What is the MHRA Referencing Style.’ 6 Dec 2023.
9 Peers & Shields, Cite them Right, p.86
10 Ibid.
11 MHRA, ‘History.’
12 David A. Wells, ‘The Modern Humanities Research Association: A Brief History.’ MHRA. 1 Nov 2016.
13 MHRA, ‘History.’
14 Leeds Arts and Humanities Research Institute, ‘The Modern Humanities Research Association is 100.’ Leeds Arts and Humanities Research Institute News. 29 Jan 2018.
15 David A. Wells, ‘The Modern Humanities Research Association.’
16 Ibid.
17 MHRA, ‘History.’
18 David A. Wells, ‘The Modern Humanities Research Association.’
19 Ibid.
20 Ibid.
21 Proofed, ‘What is MHRA’
22 Leeds Arts and Humanities Research Institute, ‘The Modern Humanities Research Association.’
Bibliography
Bates, Catherine, and Abi Matthewman, Studying Arts and Humanities (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009).
Leeds Arts and Humanities Research Institute, ‘The Modern Humanities Research Association is 100.’ Leeds Arts and Humanities Research Institute News. 29 Jan 2018. < https://ahc.leeds.ac.uk/leeds-arts-humanities-research-institute-1/news/article/906/the-modern-humanities-research-association-is-100>
MHRA, ‘History.’ (2020).
Modern Humanities Research Association, MHRA Style Guide: A Handbook for Authors and Editors, 3rd edn. (London: Modern Humanities Research Association, 2013).
Peers, Richard, and Graham Shields, Cite them Right: The Essential Referencing Guide (Durham: Pear Tree Books, 2008).
Proofed, ‘What is MHRA Referencing?’ Proofread my Essay, 3 July 2017. < https://proofed.co.uk/writing-tips/what-is-mhra-referencing/> [accessed 14 Dec 2023].
University of St Andrews, ‘What is the MHRA Referencing Style.’ 6 Dec 2023. < https://libguides.st-andrews.ac.uk/Referencing_styles/MHRA_authordate> [accessed 14 Dec 2023].
Wells, David A., ‘The Modern Humanities Research Association: A Brief History.’ MHRA. 1 Nov 2016. < https://www.mhra.org.uk/news/2016/11/01/history-of-the-mhra.html> accessed 14 Dec 2023.
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