Referencing: General Information

PLEASE READ THIS PARAGRAPH BEFORE YOU GIVE IN YOUR ESSAY

It is absolutely crucial that you reference correctly--these essays will go towards your Finals result. You can choose the MLA or MHRA system but must be consistent. In some ways MHRA works better for this course as it is hard to reference websites using MLA (you will be using the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography a lot, as well as Early English Books Online). Always remember to give a page number--we check your quotations.

You can download the full MHRA style guide from here: Style Guide Download Page

A guide to MLA formatting can be found here: MLA Formatting and Style Guide

Further information can be found here

 

Referencing E-Journals

When you cite from e-journal sites you MUST include the original publication details -- which journal, what date and the page numbers. You should also make sure you show which electronic journal collection you got it from, and include a stable URL.

So, in MHRA:

Whiting, George W. 'Political Satire in London Stage Plays, 1680-83', Modern Philology vol. 28 no. 1 (Aug, 1930), pp. 29-43. JSTOR. Warwick University Library. 26 April 2005. http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0026-8232%28193008%2928%3A1%3C29%3APSILSP%3E2.0.CO%3B2-X.

Obviously you only do this long reference the first time you cite -- thereafter use 'Whiting, p. 40' or whatever.

Joseph Gibaldi's MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 5th ed. (New York: The Modern Language Association of America, 1999), deals with citations of online sources in section 4.9.7., pp.195-96.

 

How do I cite a title from EEBO?

When citing material from EEBO, it is important to remember to give the publication details of the original print source as well as the electronic version. You can view these in EEBO by clicking on the full record icon (horizontal page) within the list of Search Results, from within image or full text page views, or from a list of Author's Works. Joseph Gibaldi's MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 5th ed. (New York: The Modern Language Association of America, 1999), deals with citations of online sources in section 4.9.7., pp.195-96. EEBO an online service to which libraries rather than individuals subscribe; for this category, the MLA Handbook specifies the inclusion of the service's name, the library (or other subscribing institution), the date of access, and the URL of the item. Here is an example based on these guidelines:

 

What Do I do if the EEBO book I'm using does not have page numbers?

I realise that trying to explain to you how early modern books are put together was a bit ambitious at this stressful stage of the year. Here is a short guide.

Fortunately most seventeenth-century books have page references, at least when the text gets going. On EEBO you sometimes have to click back to the facsimile to get page references if you are using the printable version. For Prefatory Matter you probably have to use signature refs. Count from the front page onwards--not all the pages will be marked but some will be so you are fine if you can count. r is short for recto (front of the page) and v short for verso (back of the page). If the book is quarto (folded in 4) it will go like this:

sig. A1r sig. A1v sig. A2r sig. A2v sig. A3r sig. A3v sig. A4r sig. A4v sig. B1r etc.

If the book is octavo (folded in 8) it will go like this:

sig. A1r sig. A1v sig. A2r sig. A2v sig. A3r sig. A3v sig. A4r sig. A4v sig. A5r sig.A5v sig. A6r sig. A6v Sig.A7r sig. A7v sig. A8r sig. A8v sig B1r