DELC Writing Style Guide

THE DELC WRITING STYLE GUIDE

The DELC Style Guide is based on the MHRA Style Guide ; please note that an alternative system of referencing, such as the MLA, is acceptable, but whichever system you employ, please do so consistently. 

WORD COUNT  For coursework essays, 10% above the word limit is acceptable but if students breach this a 10 mark penalty will be applied.  The word count is to include quotations, but not footnotes, bibliography and appendices.   The word count should be given at the end of the essay.

TYPEFACE AND LAYOUT  Please use a plain 12-point regular typeface (also known as ‘font’) for all submitted work (this is Arial, regular 12pt.).  Employ either 1.5 or double spacing; this leaves room for marking.  Lay out your work with a straight left-hand margin and ragged right-hand edge (i.e. left-justified, as is this document).  Make paragraphing clear, either through indentation of the first line of a paragraph, or through leaving a double space between paragraphs.  Ensure that all pages are numbered consecutively. 

QUOTATIONS AND QUOTATION MARKS  The language and spelling of quotations is always that of the book or edition referred to. Thus, if you are studying a work written in French, then quote in the French, using that edition. Similarly, if you are studying a text in English, then please quote in the English.  Short quotations (up to forty words or no more than two lines of verse) should be enclosed in single quotation marks and incorporated into the main text. If a verse quotation includes a line division, this should be marked with a spaced upright stroke ( | ).  Long quotations should be separated from the main text by the space of one line of text before and after the quotation, and quotations should be indented. They should be single-spaced and should not be enclosed within quotation marks.  For a quotation within a quotation, double quotation marks should be used.  In quotations, points indicating an ellipsis (i.e. the omission of a portion of the text) should be enclosed within square brackets: ‘Her enquiries […] were not very favourably answered.’ 

NUMBERS  Dates should be written 18 August 2007 and decades as the 1880s or 1990s (without an apostrophe). Inclusive numbers should include the fewest possible digits (esp. relevant for referencing purposes): 32-3, 132-48, 200-5, except in ‘teen’ numbers, where 1 is repeated (1914-18); dates should be elided to the last two digits: 1997-98.

FOOTNOTES AND ENDNOTES  Footnotes should be kept to a minimum. They should not include too much expository material (which is often better incorporated into the text).  A reference number to a footnote or endnote should be at the end of a sentence if possible, following the full-stop.  All footnotes and endnotes should end with a full stop. 

FIRST REFERENCES (see beneath for later references)  For first references in footnotes or endnotes, follow the arrangement of these examples: 

BOOKS  Tom McArthur, Worlds of Reference: Lexicography, Learning and Language from the Clay Tablet to the Computer (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986), p. 59.  Jean Starobinski, Montaigne in Motion, trans. by Arthur Goldhammer (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986), p. 174.  Dictionary of the Middle Ages, ed. by Joseph R. Strayer and others, 13 vols (New York: Scribner, 1982–89), vi (1985), 26.  Carlos Fuentes, Aura, ed. by Peter Standish, Durham Modern Language Series: Hispanic Texts, 1 (Durham: University of Durham, 1986), pp. 12–16 (p. 14). 

CHAPTERS OR ARTICLES IN BOOKS  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: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1982), pp. 31–55 (p. 41). 

ARTICLES IN JOURNALS  Richard Hillyer, ‘In More than Name Only: Jonson’s “To Sir Horace, Vere”’, MLR, 85 (1990), 1-11.  Robert F. Cook, ‘Baudouin de Sebourc: un poème édifiant?’, Olifant, 14 (1989), 115–35 (pp. 118–19). 

ONLINE PUBLICATIONS  Please make sure you give the full reference, plus the date accessed, as in the following examples:  Els Jongeneel, ‘Art and Divine Order in the Divina Commedia’, Literature and Theology, 21 (2007), 131–45 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/ litthe/frm008>  Steve Sohmer, ‘The Lunar Calendar of Shakespeare’s King Lear’, Early Modern Literary Studies, 5.2 (1999) <http://purl.oclc.org/ emls/05-2/sohmlear.htm> [accessed 28 January 2000] (para. 3 of 24).  Kent Bach, ‘Performatives’, in Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy <http://www.rep.routledge.com> [accessed 3 October 2001].  FILMS  For films, the reference should include, as a minimum, title, director,  distributor, date, e.g.:  The Grapes of Wrath, dir. by John Ford (20th Century Fox, 1940) 

LATER REFERENCES  In all references to a book or article after the first, the shortest intelligible form should be used. This will normally be the author’s name, or a short-title reference if appropriate, followed by the volume (if applicable) and page reference, e.g. McArthur, p. 62; Elsky, pp. 42–46 (p. 43); Dictionary of the Middle Ages, vi (1985), 26.  It may be necessary - for example when more than one work by an author has been cited - to repeat a title, in a shortened form: McArthur, Worlds of Reference, p. 9.  Within the body of an essay, once a particular work has been referenced with a foot/end-note number, it is enough to write (McArthur, p. 33) following any subsequent points drawing on that specific author’s thought. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY  A bibliography must be added at the end of every essay, even if the only work consulted is the primary text.  The bibliography should be in alphabetical order. The surname of the author or editor will precede the forename(s) or initial(s). Note that no full stop is necessary at the end of bibliographical entries.  Cook, Robert F., ‘Baudouin de Sebourc: un poème édifiant?’, Olifant, 14 (1989), 115–35  Fuentes, Carlos, Aura, ed. by Peter Standish, Durham Modern Language Series: Hispanic Texts, 1 (Durham: University of Durham, 1986)  Johnson, Thomas H., ed., Emily Dickinson: Selected Letters, 2nd edn (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1985)  Strayer, Joseph R., and others, eds, Dictionary of the Middle Ages, 13 vols (New York: Scribner, 1982–89), vi (1985)