SELCS Style sheet for assessed essays
Please familiarise yourself with the documents on this Moodle site on presentation,
plagiarism and non-originality, penalties for late submission and penalties for excessive
length. Failure to observe these rules and regulations can have serious consequences.
Acknowledging sources through citation
A "citation" is the way you tell your readers that certain material in your work came from
another source. It also gives your readers the information necessary to find that source again,
including:
Information about the author
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The title of the work
The name and location of the company that published your copy of the source
The date your copy was published
The page numbers of the material you are borrowing
Why should I cite sources?
Giving credit to the original author by citing sources is the only way to use other people’s
work without plagiarising. In addition,
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Citations are helpful to anyone who wants to find out more about your ideas and
where they came from
Citing sources shows the amount of research you’ve done
Citing sources strengthens your work by lending outside support to your ideas.
When do I need to cite?
Whenever you borrow words or ideas, you need to acknowledge their source. The following
situations almost always require citation:
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Whenever you use quotations
Whenever you paraphrase
Whenever you use an idea that someone else has already expressed
Whenever you make specific reference to the work of another
Whenever someone else’s work has been critical in developing your own ideas.
Referencing
References in the text of your essay should refer to the Bibliography (called a ‘Works
Consulted’ list if you are using more varied sources than books). Your Bibliography (or
‘Works Consulted’ list) should be included at the end of the essay and should begin on a
separate sheet of paper after the end of the essay. It should contain a full list of the sources
(organized alphabetically by author’s surname) used directly in the text of the essay
(including direct quotations) but should also include reference to sources of paraphrased
quotations or ideas, as well as all indirect or secondary sources of quotations or ideas.
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Please use numbered footnotes. Your footnotes DO count in your word count, as do all
quotations, but your bibliography does NOT.
Quotations
Verse quotations longer than two lines of verse and prose quotations longer than three lines
of type should be indented.
Shorter quotations (two lines of verse or less than three lines of prose) should be enclosed in
single quotation marks and run on with the main text. A quotation within a quotation should
be enclosed in double quotation marks. Line breaks in a verse should be indicated with /.
To enable your reader to follow them up with ease, the source of all quotations must be
identified clearly and consistently.
Bibliographical references
On the occasion of the first quotation from a source or reference to it, whether primary or
secondary, details should be given in full, together with the appropriate page reference, in a
numbered footnote. Book titles should be in italics. Individual poem, story or academic
article titles should be in ‘quotation marks’. For subsequent quotations from the same source,
a page reference in brackets immediately following the quotation is sufficient (p. 56), though
where you are using several sources by the same author, this should be preceded by an
abbreviated form of the title (Ulys, p. 56). Your Bibliography should contain full details of all
works referred to in your essay and, where required, a list of title abbreviations adopted.
References to primary and secondary literature should follow the MHRA Style Guide. Notes
for Authors, Editors and Writers of Theses (the latest edition can be downloaded from
http://www.mhra.org.uk/Downloads/index.html.).
Basic referencing examples:
Jean Starobinski, Montaigne in Motion, trans. by Arthur Goldhammer (Chicago: University
of Chicago Press, 1986), p. 174.
[N.B.: in the bibliography this reference would be cited as follows:
Starobinski, Jean, Montaigne in Motion, trans. by Arthur Goldhammer (Chicago: University
of Chicago Press, 1986)]
Carlos Fuentes, Aura, ed. by Pater Standish, Durham Modern Language Series: Hispanic
Texts, I (Durham: University of Durham, 1986), pp. 12-16 (p. 14).
Martin Elsky, ‘Words, Things, and Names: Jonson’s Poetry and Philosophical Grammar’, in
Classic and Cavalier: Essays on Jonson and the Sons of Ben, ed. by Claude J. Summers and
Ted-Larry Pebworth (Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1982), pp. 31-55.
[N.B.: in the bibliography this reference would be cited as follows:
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Elsky, Martin, ‘Words, Things, and Names: Jonson’s Poetry and Philosophical Grammar’, in
Classic and Cavalier: Essays on Jonson and the Sons of Ben, ed. by Claude J. Summers and
Ted-Larry Pebworth (Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1982)]
Maurizio Perugi, ‘James Sully e la formazione dell’estetica pascoliana’, Studi di Filologia
Italiana, 42 (1984), 225-309 (p. 302).
Be as careful and full in your referencing of electronic sources as you are with printed
materials. For online resources, you should also provide a date for when you accessed the
material, e.g.:
Kent Bach, ‘Performatives’, in Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy
<http://www.rep.routledge.com> [accessed 3 October 2001]
For films, the reference should include, as a minimum, title, director, distributor and date, e.g.:
The Grapes of Wrath. Dir John Ford. 20th-Century Fox. 1940
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