King’s College London – Department of Theology & Religious Studies

A Quick Guide to Reference Styles in TRS

References need to be provided whenever you use the work of other writers in essays, dissertations,
powerpoints or handouts, no matter whether you paraphrase the work or quote from it.

References need to be inserted according to a clearly defined reference style, which is applied
consistently and efficiently throughout the essay (or other piece of work).

Reference styles are carefully designed to offer clear, consistent, precise and reliable information about
sources, so that readers can retrieve these sources and examine their role in the argument of the writer.
It is, therefore, unacceptable in academic (and other professional) writing to reference sloppily. The
degree to which you have successfully adopted a reference style will be reflected in the marks you
obtain for your work.

The Chicago, Harvard and SBL (Society of Biblical Literature) reference styles are widely used in academic
books and journals. In the UK, the MHRA (Modern Humanities Research Association) system, which may
be described as the UK version of Chicago and Harvard, is also relevant, and it is used in many
departments at King’s.
TRS adopted these styles:
- MHRA: “Footnote” Style (equivalent to “Chicago”)
- MHRA: “Author/Date” Style (equivalent to “Harvard”)
The SBL style is relevant for biblical references.

The “traditional” style allows you to provide references as footnotes or endnotes .The “author/date”
style avoids footnotes and endnotes: references are given in parentheses in the main text.

Your module tutor will let you know which system(s) they recommend. As you will take modules in
various different fields (e.g. anthropology, history, sociology, theology), you may be encouraged to
familiarise yourself with more than one style. This Quick Guide focuses on the MHRA style and offers a
link to a useful “Quick Guide” for Harvard. Please use the Quick Guides to check that you are using a style
correctly and consistently.

Please note: Since different publishers adopt different reference styles, you will come across minor
deviations from MHRA (both styles) in the books and articles you study for your modules. This should not
be a source of confusion. In your own writing, you should apply the reference style you adopted for a
particular piece of work correctly and consistently.

How do I insert footnotes/endnotes? In MS Word, go to “References” and click on , or on

“Insert Endnote”.

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MHRA: “Traditional” Style

First References:

Books:

1
Hannah Arendt, The Human Condition (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1958), p. 5.

2
Max Horkheimer and Theodor W. Adorno, Dialectic of Enlightenment: Philosophical Fragments,
ed. by Gunzelin Schmid Noerr, trans. by Edmund Jephcott (Stanford: Stanford University Press,
2002), pp. 144–47.

3
Melville, Herman, ‘Billy Budd, Sailor’ and Other Stories, ed. by Harold Beaver (Harmondsworth:
Penguin, 1985), p. 10

 p. or pp.?
- If you refer to a single page: p. 5. If you refer to a range of pages: pp. 5–7 or pp. 215–17.

Chapters or articles in books:

4
Isaiah Berlin, ‘Two Concepts of Liberty’, in Berlin, Liberty, ed. by Henry Hardy (Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2002), pp. 166–217 (p. 167).

5
Tomoko Masuzawa, ‘Culture’, in Critical Terms for Religious Studies, ed. by Mark C. Taylor
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998), pp. 70–93.

6
Nancy Fraser, ‘Michel Foucault: A “Young Conservative”?’, in Critique and Power: Recasting the
Foucault/Habermas Debate, ed. by Michael Kelly (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1994), pp.
185–210.

 Please note:
- If you are referring to a particular page within a chapter or article, the page number should be
added in parentheses (see above, FN 4).

Articles in journals:

7
Elizabeth Anscombe, ‘Modern Moral Philosophy’, Philosophy, 33 (1958), 1–19 (p. 15).

Online sources:

For online resources, the MHRA suggests that, as far as possible, the style for printed publications is
used:

2
Moshe Idel, ‘Mysticism and Mystical Literature’, in The YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe,
[Link] [accessed 8
September 2014].

 Please note:
- Printed books and articles which are also published online (e.g. via Google Books, JSTOR or
KEATS) are not considered online sources.
- When you access printed books and journals online, you will normally find the bibliographical
details of the print version on the first page(s).
- When using online sources, e.g. Wikipedia, please make sure you understand the intended
audience and whether the material provided is suitable for academic purposes, critical inquiry,
and the level of work you seek to submit. Useful websites will normally be recommended as part
of your reading lists. All online sources, including Wikipedia, need to be referenced.

Biblical references:
See SBL Style (below).

Consecutive references:

If consecutive footnotes/endnotes cite the same work, then use ’Ibid.’, which is short for the Latin
ibidem (‘in the same place’). Thus, you should not write sequences of footnotes/endnotes as follows:

11
W[illliam] Reginald Ward, The Protestant Evangelical Awakening (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1992), p. 55.
12
W[illliam] Reginald Ward, The Protestant Evangelical Awakening (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1992), p. 192.
13
W[illliam] Reginald Ward, The Protestant Evangelical Awakening (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1992), p. 26.

Instead, you should write:

11
W[illliam] Reginald Ward, The Protestant Evangelical Awakening (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1992), p. 55.
12
Ibid., p. 192.
13
Ibid., p. 26.

Later references:
If you refer to a work for the second time after you have cited other works, then the shortest intelligible
form should be used: the author’s name and a short-title reference, followed by the volume (if
applicable) and page reference:

Masuzawa, ‘Culture’, p. 73.

Ward, Awakening, p. 26.

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Bibliography:

The bibliography at the end of your essay or dissertation, follows the same style, but is ordered
alphabetically, with surnames preceding first names.

Anscombe, Elizabeth, ‘Modern Moral Philosophy’, Philosophy, 33 (1958), 1–19

Arendt, Hannah, The Human Condition (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1958)
Berlin, Isaiah, ‘Two Concepts of Liberty’, in Berlin, Liberty, ed. by Henry Hardy (Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2002), pp. 166–217
Horkheimer, Max, and Theodor W. Adorno, Dialectic of Enlightenment: Philosophical Fragments,
ed. by Gunzelin Schmid Noerr, trans. by Edmund Jephcott (Stanford: Stanford University Press,
2002)
Masuzawa, Tomoko, ‘Culture’, in Critical Terms for Religious Studies, ed. by Mark C. Taylor
(Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1998), pp. 70–93

Please note: Book chapters and articles need to be listed with page numbers. (This is not the least,
because you will need page numbers, if you have discovered an interesting book chapter or article in a
bibliography and would like to order it via a library or Interlibrary Loan.)

Fuller details:
[Link]

The complete MHRA Style Guide:

[Link]

MHRA: Author/Date Style

Book or journal article:

Arendt (1958: 5) suggests that …

OR
Critically rethinking the Enlightenment may also open up new perspective on religion in modernity
(Horkheimer and Adorno 2002: 144–147).

 For more examples, please see the MHRA Style Guide, Section 11.4 (pp. 78–80):
[Link]

Bibliography:

Anscombe, Elizabeth. 1958. ‘Modern Moral Philosophy’, Philosophy, 33: 1–19

Arendt, Hannah. 1958. The Human Condition, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Berlin, Isaiah. 2002. ‘Two Concepts of Liberty’, in Berlin, Liberty, ed. by Henry Hardy, Oxford: Oxford
University Press, pp. 166–217

4
Horkheimer, Max, and Adorno, Theodor. W. 2002. Dialectic of Enlightenment: Philosophical Fragments,
ed. by Gunzelin Schmid Noerr, trans. by E. Jephcott, Stanford: Stanford University Press
Masuzawa, Tomoko. 1998. ‘Culture’, in Taylor, M. C. (ed.) Critical Terms for Religious Studies,
Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, pp. 70–93

Biblical references (SBL Style)

Mark 3:6–7
Not: Mark chapter three, verse six, or Holy Bible: NRSV (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993) p. 143.

Please note:
- If you are referring to an entire biblical chapter, please use the full name of the biblical book. If
you are only referring to some of the verses, please use the accepted abbreviations for the name
of the book:
1 Samuel 3
1 Sam 3:4

Biblical references can come within parentheses; you do not need to create a footnote for a single
reference, although you would perhaps do so for a string of references.

The Bible version you use needs to be listed in the Bibliography.

Please use the following list of abbreviation:

[Link]

A Few Notes on Style

Where do I put a comma, a semicolon, an apostrophe? Answers can be found in this excellent, very
funny and useful ‘punctuation repair kit’: Lynne Truss, Eats, Shoots & Leaves (many editions).

Quotations:

- Quotations should be placed in single inverted commas, e.g.:

Smith claims that ‘utilitarianism is a flawed moral theory because it has a mistaken conception of
pleasure’.[add footnote here] He goes on to argue that…

- If the quotation exceeds 40 words, you can indent it from both left and right margin or just from
the left margin. In this case, you do not need to enclose it in inverted commas.

- Do not do any of the following: underline or italicize the quotation; print it in bold or in a larger
font than the main text; use a different font style for it.

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 - If you add words to a quotation (for grammatical reasons or clarification), then show this in
square brackets, e.g.:
Smith claims that ‘utilitarianism is a flawed moral theory [mainly] because it has a mistaken
conception of pleasure’.

- If you omit words from the quotation, show this in the way indicated by this example:
Smith claims that ‘utilitarianism […] has a mistaken conception of pleasure’.

 Please note:
- If you refer to X’s comment on Y’s article, then find Y’s article and read it! X may be quoting Y
selectively, or the context may make it clear that X is, despite (because of) the quotation,
misrepresenting Y. So read Y for yourself.

Dates:

- Please use this form: 23 April 1564 (with the name of the month in full between the day and the
year; not: 21st, 22nd, or 23rd etc.)

- For dates in both the Old and New Styles, please use this form: 11/21 July 1605. For dates
dependent upon the time of the beginning of the new year, use: 21 January 1564/5.

- For periods of time: from 1826 to 1850 (not: 1826–1850) or ‘from January to March 1970’ (not:
January–March 1970).

- For citations of the era, please note: BCE (‘before the common era’) and CE (‘common era’)
follow the year: 54 BCE, 80 CE.

- When specifying centuries, the ordinal should be spelled out: the sixteenth century (not: the 16th
century).

- When referring to decades, an s without and apostrophe should be used: the 1920s (not: the
1920’s) or the 60s (not: the 60’s).

- In giving approximate dates circa should be abbreviated to c. followed by a space: c. 1490.

Loc. cit., op. cit., et al.:

Note the following terms from foreign language that crop up in academic texts:

- Loc. cit. (loco citato = in the place cited) is used instead of Ibid. when the same author, work and
page are being referred to:
11
W[illiam] Reginald Ward, The Protestant Evangelical Awakening (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1992), p. 55.
12
Loc. cit.
6
- [Link]. (opus citatum = the work cited) is used when a work previously referred to is mentioned
again, but a different page number is intended:
11
W[illiam] Reginald Ward, The Protestant Evangelical Awakening (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1992), p. 55.
12
Hannah Arendt, The Human Condition (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1958), p. 17.
13
Ward, op. cit., p. 23.

- et al.: and others (can be used when a book has more than two or three editors)

- cf.: compare, consult

- infra: below; also in: v.i.: vide infra, see below

supra: above; also in v.s.: vide supra, see above