There are two versions of the MHRA Reference Style.  If you have been advised to use MHRA check with your school to confirm which version you should use.  The most commonly used version is Footnotes and Bibliography.

• Footnotes and Bibliography OR
• Author-Date

Footnotes and Bibliography:

With this version of MHRA whenever you want to cite a work you do so using superscripted numbers within the text which link to a numbered footnote at the bottom of the page, where the details of the source are given.  All items cited are also listed in the Bibliography at the end of your document, you can also include works read but not cited in your Bibliography.  

Footnote - First citation:

The first time you cite a work, your footnote should contain the full details of the source, all footnotes end with a full stop :

• Footnote number.  Author First Name Surname, Title (Place: Publisher, Year), p. xx.

e.g. 1. John W. Carroll and Ned Markosian, An introduction to metaphysics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010), p. 83. 

Footnote - Subsequent citations:

If you have already cited something, the next time you cite it you use an abbreviated form, Author, and page number(s). If you you are using other works authored by the same author, use a shortened title as well as the author to distinguish which work you are referring to:

• Footnote number, Author Surname, p. xx.

e.g. 3. Carroll and Markosian, p. 112.

The use of 'Ibid':

Ibid - from the latin ibidem - means 'in the same place'.  You can use ibid if two or more consecutive citations come from the same source, to shorten your footnotes.

e.g. 1. John W. Carroll and Ned Markosian, An introduction to metaphysics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010) p. 83. 

       2. Ibid., p. 112.

       3. Ibid., p. 141.

Bibliography

• Comes at the end of your work
• includes the full reference
• First author is given as Surname, First name; collaborating authors, editors and translators are given First Name Surname.  
• Specific page numbers are not given, but if you are referring to a chapter within a book, or an article in a journal, etc. a page range is included.  
• You can also include works read but not cited in your bibliography.  
• The Bibliography is arranged alphabetically by author surname.

Bibliography entry:

Surname, First name, Title (Place: Publisher, Year)