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Kingston University, Field of English

Conventions of Academic Presentation

(The Style Sheet)

Contents

Introduction

How to Use this Style Sheet

Who Invented these Rules?

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Section One: Presentation

1a. Presentation: Overview

1b. Presentation: Page Layout
1c. Presentation: Cover Sheets and Bindings
1d. Presentation: Word Count

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Section Two: Quotations

2a. Quotations: Long and Short

2b. Quotations: Rules on Presentation
2c. Quotations: Rules about Punctuation
2d. Quotations: Interpolations into Quotations
2e. Quotations: References and Citations

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Section Three: Referencing

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3a. Referencing: Italics, Underlining, and Quotation Marks

3b. Referencing: Footnotes #1 Placement
3c. Referencing: Footnotes #2 Content
3d. Referencing: Books
3e. Referencing: Journal Articles
3f. Referencing: Articles in Edited Books
3g. Referencing: Newspapers and Magazines
3h. Referencing: Shorter Works
3i. Referencing: Websites
3j. Referencing: Electronic Texts
3k. Referencing: Bibliographies

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Section Four: Style

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4a. Abbreviations
4b. Adjectival Hyphenation
4c. Dates and Numbers
4d. Punctuation
4e. Spelling and Grammar Checking

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Section Five: Getting it Right

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5a. Punctuation (again)

5b. Spelling
5c. Choosing the Right Word
5d. Presenting Your Evidence
5e. And Finally

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Introduction
Over the years, academic writers have agreed a set of conventions for presenting academic work.
Most of these conventions are based in the rules of good writing, and most hold true for writing in
other areas as well. Journalists, publishers, teachers, advertisers, civil servants, doctors, lawyers,
and many more all base their presentations and articles on the rules of academic presentation.
Familiarising yourself with these rules from the start will not only help you to get better marks
while at Kingston, but will also help you with your later career.
This document presents some of the most important rules and conventions of academic
presentation. In particular, it shows the rules of referencing: the rules you must follow to give full
details of all the sources to which you quote and refer. There are also details of the most
important questions of punctuation. In each case, the rule is given with an explanation and an
example. Compare the examples with your own work. If they do not look similar, then you need to
work on your project some more before handing it in.
The rules and conventions in this document have the needs of students of English literature in
mind. You may be aware of other systems of referencing used in other disciplines. You may be
used to using another system yourself if, for example, you are studying psychology or forensic
science alongside English. If you are familiar with another system of referencing, you may continue
using that one. However, you must make sure that whatever system you use, it obeys the CCC
rule. This means that your work must always be:

Clear
Complete
Consistent

Clarity: read through your work and see if it makes sense. If a sentence does not make sense to
you, it almost certainly will not make any sense to the person who is marking it. If possible, put
your work aside for a day or two and then come back to it. You will be surprised how many little
mistakes you spotand correctbefore you hand your work in. You might also find it useful to let
a friend or relative read it through. Very often, other people will spot the little mistakes that you
overlook yourself. Reading though your work in this way is called proof reading and it is an
essential stage in the writing of your essay.
Completeness: you must always cite your sources in full. There is no exception to this rule. If you
do not cite all your sources in full, you leave yourself open to accusations of plagiarism. Plagiarism,
which amounts to passing off someone elses work as your own, is a serious issue of academic
misconduct (otherwise known as cheating) and is heavily penalised. Avoiding this is simple, as long
as you cite all your sources in full.
Consistency: you are strongly advised to make use of this style sheet in preference to any other.
However, if you are already familiar with another system (for example, if you are a visiting
overseas student) and you choose to use that instead, make sure that the conventions you use are
consistent throughout your work.

How to Use This Style Sheet

We do not expect you to learn all the rules right away. It takes time to learn how to automatically
present and reference your work correctly. You should print a copy of this style sheet and refer to
it while writing your essays and projects. After time, the rules will become second nature. Until
then, make sure that you refer to this document whenever you quote from a secondary source,
write a footnote, or compile a bibliography.
Each section presents a different topic. In each section a rule, or group of related rules, is given.
These are for you to refer to and to follow. Rules can seem arbitrary, and so in each section we
give an explanation of the rule and how it came about. Finally, in most sections there is an
example or group of examples. Compare the rules with both the explanations and the examples to
get a good sense of how you should be using the rules.
If you still do not understand how to apply the rules, dont worry, as it takes everyone time to
learn them. Remember, you can always go to the Centre for Academic Skills and Employability
(CASE) for further help and explanation. Indeed, you are strongly encouraged to take your work to
CASEs before you hand it in.

Who Invented These Rules?

The rules of academic presentation have their roots in the writing of Greek and Roman
philosophers, and have been developed and refined over centuries. In recent years, a number of
universities and academic organisations have codified these rules and published them as style
guides. Thus, you might hear about Harvard Style (published by Harvard University) or Oxford
Style (published by Oxford University). This style sheet is based on that published by the Modern
Humanities Research Association (MHRA) and is thus known as MHRA Style. MHRA Style is a
simplified version of Chicago Style. For more information on these, and to answer complex
questions not addressed in this style sheet, look at:

The MHRA Style Guide: A Handbook for Authors, Editors, and Writers of Theses , 2nd edn
(London: Modern Humanities Research Association, 2008)
The Chicago Manual of Style, 16th Edition (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2010)

Both of these are available in the library. The MHRA Style guide costs only 6, and you are strongly
encouraged to buy your own copy. Alternatively, you can download it for free from the MHRA at:
http://www.mhra.org.uk/Publications/Books/StyleGuide/download.shtml

Section One: Presentation

This section covers the physical appearance of the writing on the page.

1a. Presentation: Overview

The Rules:
Essays, and most other forms of written assignment, should consist of three main parts:

Body text (the main part of your essay)

Footnotes
Bibliography

The Explanation:
The body of your essay will form a piece of continuous prose arranged into paragraphs.
Throughout the body of the essay, you will make reference to other texts. The footnotes give the
titles of the texts from which you quote and the page numbers of those quotations. The
bibliography gathers together in one convenient location the titles of all the texts to which you
refer.

1b. Presentation: page layout

The Rules:
Written work should be formatted, printed out, and handed in according to the following rules:

Double spaced (minimum 1.5 space)

A simple font such Times New Roman, Arial or similar at 12 points.
Footnotes rather than endnotes.
Set paper size to A4 (make sure it is not set to Letter)
Leave a generous margin of at least 2.5cm
Aligned to the left margin (i.e., with a ragged edge to the right, not blocked (justified) like
a book
Pages must be numbered

The Explanation:
Your work needs to be easy to read. Remember that the person marking it might have many
essays or projects to read, they might be getting tired, or their eyesight might not be as good as
yours. A tiny font or cramped together lines will not make their job easier: or them better
disposed towards your work. You also need to leave spaces between lines and in the margins so
that the marker can add comments to your work. It is important that the person marking your

work is sure that he or she has all the submitted pages and that they are in the correct order.
Number pages so that if a page is missing, or if the work is accidentally shuffled, the marker can
see what the correct order should be.
The Example:

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This entire document is set to A4 paper. The font is Calibri, 12 point (except for the headings,
which are slightly larger). Each page has a margin of 2 cm top and bottom and 3 cm left and
right. This paragraph is double-spaced. Your work should look similar to this paragraph when it
is printed out. The number of this imaginary page is 1, and the number is given at the top and
is centred. However, you may place the page number at the bottom of the page or on the right
if you choose.

1c. Presentation: Cover Sheets and Bindings

The Rules:
1. Your work must have the appropriate cover sheet attached to it. The cover sheet must be
filled out in full and the plagiarism declaration must be signed.
2. If you made use of CASE, you must include a CASE attendance form.
3. The pages of your essay or project must be firmly attached together. You may staple the
pages together, use a paper clip, or place them together in a single plastic wallet. Do not,
however, place each page in a separate wallet.
The Explanation:
It is important that the marker knows who produced the work! It is also important that it is easy to
read. Nothing is more frustrating for a marker than having to spend ten minutes extricating an
essay from piles of reinforced plastic!

1d. Presentation: Word Count

The Rules:
1. You must include a full word count at the end of your work
2. Word counts include all text and footnotes
3. Word counts DO NOT include words in the bibliography

4. If you write more than 10% more or less than the required number of words, you may be
penalised
The Explanation:
Among other things, you are being assessed on your ability to express yourself in a set number of
words. You must thus keep to the required word count, and indicate to the marker that you have
done so by including a word count at the end of the essay. You must stick as close as possible to
the required word count. However, because topics and sentences do sometimes have a natural
length, it is acceptable to deviate from the required word count by no more than 10 per cent,
provided that this deviation enhances the clarity and completeness of your work.

Section Two: Quotations

This section covers the rules governing quotations. It is vitally important that these rules are
followed correctly since a failure to present quotations accurately could leave you open to
accusations of plagiarism, which carries serious penalties. It is also important to follow these rules
to ensure that your writing is clear and intelligible.

2a. Quotations: long and short

The Rules:

Short quotations of fewer than three lines of prose should be placed within single
quotation marks ( ) and incorporated within your own text.
Short quotations of fewer than three lines of verse should be placed within single
quotation marks ( ) and incorporated within your own text. The lines should be separated
with an oblique ( / ).
Long quotations of more than three lines of prose should be placed in a separate
paragraph and indented.
Long quotations of more than three lines of verse should be placed in a separate paragraph
and indented.
Do not put quotation marks around indented paragraphs.
The sentence that introduces an indented paragraph should conclude with a colon (:).
Do not mark the start or end of a quotation with an ellipsis *+.

The Explanation:
Readers of your work need to know when your voice ends and the voice of another writer begins.
All quoted material needs to be identified as the work of another. You do not need to start or
finish a quotation with an ellipsis since it is clear that your quotation will have been drawn from a
longer work. See also, rule 2d.
The Example:

In George Colmans play Inkle and Yarico, the comic character Trudge entertains the audience
with his nonsense verse, rhyming diddle, daddle, deedle with twaddle, twaddle, tweedle. Yet,
this is in fact a satire on ballad conventions, as a longer quotation demonstrates:

Hey! For America I sail,

Yankee doodle deedle;

The sailor boys cryd Smoak his tail!

Jemmy linkum feedle.

All this nonsense is Colmans invention. As Jones points out, no character other than Yarico has
a name in Richard Ligons original story. Indeed, Colman invents a whole series of characters, as
well as a whole series of new names for them; but in this he was not the first. Jones also notes
that Richard Steele added the name Inkle in 1714 and that:

Steeles choice of name may partly be influenced by an historical character, Richard

Ingle, a merchant turned privateer, whose intervention in American affairs caused a
stir in 1645, just two years before Richard Ligon fled to Barbados.

2b. Quotations: rules on presentation

The Rules:

Present quoted material exactly as it appears in the original

Do NOT put quoted material in italics unless it is in italics in the original
Do NOT put quoted material in bold unless it is in bold in the original
Do NOT put quoted material in a different font from the rest of your work

The only exception to the exactly as it appeared in the original rule is:

You do not need to hyphenate long words which have been broken up into separate parts by the printer

The Explanation:
When you quote the work of another person you are copying their words exactly. Therefore, you
must not change the appearance of the text in any way.
The Example:

According to this style sheet, you must NOT put quoted material in italics unless it is in italics in

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the original. Nevertheless, there is no need to hyphenate long words which have been broken
up into separate parts by the printer.

2c. Quotations: Rules about punctuation

The Rules:

All short quotations must be enclosed within single quotation marks ( ).

Quotes within quotes must be enclosed within double quotation marks ( ).
Final punctuation should be within quotation marks if a complete sentence is quoted.
Final punctuation should be outside quotation marks if the quotation forms only part of a
sentence.

The Explanation:
It is important that the reader knows where your writing starts and ends, and where the quoted
material starts and ends. This avoids any confusion and any possible accusations of plagiarism. It is
also important for the reader to know whether the punctuation you quote is the authors original
punctuation or not.
The Example:

In his critical study of As You Like It, Jeremy Bleak argues that Shakespeares contention that all
the worlds a stage is demonstrably false.

On first reading, this style sheet seems to insist that Punctuation should be within quotation
marks. On closer reading, however, we can see that it in fact insists that Punctuation should be
within quotation marks if a complete sentence is quoted.

2d. Quotations: interpolations into quotations

The Rules:

All interpolated material should be in square brackets [ ].

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If you cut material, you need indicate where you made the cut using square brackets
containing an ellipsis *+.
If you cut material and then add a word to make the quote make sense, that material must
be in square brackets [and].

The Explanation:
It is important for the reader to know what is in the original quote and what has been added or
changed by you. All additions or changes are therefore included in square brackets.
The Example:

The original text might look like this:

Thus the context of deformity in the novel curiously offers opportunities to renegotiate
sexual difference. Kristina Straub aptly points to the male incapacity of Burneys
masculine characters, including Sir Hughs symbolic castration and the fact that the
brothers of Camilla and Indiana are respectively a wastrel and a fop.
To make it clearer and shorter, you might change it to:
Thus the context of deformity in [Frances Burneys Camilla] curiously offers
opportunities to renegotiate sexual difference. Kristina Straub aptly points to the male
incapacity of *her+ masculine characters, including *+ the fact that the brothers of
Camilla and Indiana are respectively a wastrel and a fop.

2e. Quotations: references and citations

The Rule:
You must give the source of all quoted material in full.
The Explanation:
There are two main reasons why you must give full references:
1. To demonstrate that you are not trying to pass someone elses work off as your own
(plagiarism).
2. To inform the reader where to go to read the original version of the material you are
quoting.
In both cases, it is clearly very important that you give full and accurate information on where the
quoted material can be located. The rules governing the ways in which you do this make up the
subject of Section 3: Referencing.

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Section Three: Referencing

This section covers the rules for referencing quoted work in both footnotes and bibliographies.

3a. Referencing: Italics, Underlining, and Quotation marks

The Rules:

Titles of longer texts and complete books must be in italics or underlined

Titles of shorter texts and texts-within-texts must be within single quotation marks

The Explanation:
Formatting titles differently helps the reader to see more clearly where you are referring to a
specific text (in italics or within quotation marks) and where you are talking more generally about
a character or concept (no italics or quotation marks).
You may use either underlining or italics. However, it is worth remembering that underlining
comes from the days before computers. Underlining is in fact nothing more than an instruction to
the printer to put the underlined words into italics. In this age of word processing, we are all our
own printers, and can thus use italics ourselves.
The Examples:

Readers interested in Shakespearean tragedy need look no further than Shakespearean

Tragedy, Mary Smiths excellent introduction to the subject, in which she notes that Hamlet kills
Polonius, just as Othello kills Desdemona. But in Hamlet, Shakespeare portrays the killing as a
tragic accident, while in Othello, the killing is the result of a tragic deception.
Brycchan Careys essay The hellish means of Killing and Kidnapping: Ignatius Sancho and the
Campaign Against the abominable traffic for slaves is probably the least interesting
contribution to the edited collection Discourses of Slavery and Abolition: Britain and its colonies,
1760-1838.
Wordsworths most successful contribution to The Lyrical Ballads is his short poem Tintern
Abbey.
If If is such a great poem, then why do we not know it off by heart?

3b. Referencing: Footnotes #1 Placement

The Rules:

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1. The source of all quoted material must be identified in footnotes notes placed at the foot
of the page.
2. Footnotes must be marked in the body text by a small superscript number and must be
numbered consecutively. Word-processing programmes such as Microsoft Word will do
this for you automatically.
3. Footnote numbers must be placed after the full stop at the end of the sentence in which
the reference occurs. Do NOT put footnotes in the middle of a sentence.
4. Where there is more than one reference in a sentence, gather together the bibliographical
information into a single footnote.
The Explanation:
Footnotes allow the reader to quickly check the source of your quotations without having to turn
to the bibliography. They are also used for relevant comment that might otherwise interrupt the
logic of the argument. Because footnotes are not intended to interrupt the flow of the text, they
are placed at the ends of sentences, where there is a natural break.
The Example:

This is how a paragraph with footnotes should look:

Dickenss novel Hard Times can be read both as a novel of its time and as part of a wider
historical discourse. Indeed, Henrietta Perch has argued that with its emphasis on falling and
tumbling the novel has much in common with the writing of Fielding and the painting of
Hogarth.1 Even ideas themselves are subject to gravity since whenever *Mrs Gradgrind+ showed
a symptom of coming to life, [she] was invariably stunned by some weighty piece of fact
tumbling on her.2 Early in her book, Perch notes that there is much falling from horses and, in
a later discussion, she draws attention to the ever-present danger of open mineshafts.3 While
her discussion is strained at times, it cannot be denied that the novel dramatises leaps and falls,
both physical and social.4

3c. Referencing: Footnotes #2 Content

The Rules:
1. Footnotes must include full bibliographic information for the source cited on the first
occasion that the source is cited.

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2. On the second and subsequent occasions a source is cited, the footnote should contain
only short bibliographic information: the author and title given in the shortest intelligible
form consistent with elegance.
3. In each case, the footnote must give the page number of the source cited.
4. You may use Ibid. where a reference immediately follows another to the same work.
5. Authors names in footnotes should be given in the form: first name, second name (Jane
Smith, or Salman Rushdie).
6. Footnotes should conclude with a full stop.
The Explanation:
Footnotes allow the reader to quickly check the source of your quotations without having to turn
to the bibliography. While you should give full bibliographical information the first time you quote
a text, you should not repeat this in every subsequent footnote, since this would use up too much
space and look ungainly.
The Example:

This is how the footnotes to the passage in the last example might look:
1. Henrietta Perch, A Difficult Period: Sentence Structure in Hard Times (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1996), p. 21.
2. Charles Dickens, Hard Times (1854) ed. Stanley Hammerite (Barnsley: The Luddite Press,
1973), p. 45.
3. Perch, A Difficult Period, pp. 26, 203.
4. Ibid., pp. 245-6
5. Dickens, Hard Times, p. 72.

3d. Referencing: Books

This section shows how you should reference books in your footnotes. The same rules apply for
referencing books in a bibliography except that you do not include page references in a
bibliography and in a bibliography the authors surname comes first.
The Rule:
References to books should include the following information in this order:
Author(s), title in italics, (original publication date if applicable), editor if applicable, number of
volumes if more than one (place of publication: publisher, publication date), volume reference if
applicable, page reference.
Note, both in the above rule and in the examples below, that there are strict rules about using
commas, colons, and full stops. For example:

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You should use a comma after a closing bracket [ ), ] but not before an opening bracket [ , (
].
You should use a colon after the place of publication, but a comma after the publisher.
You should abbreviate the word page to a single, lower case p followed by a full stop and
a space [ p. 67]
You should abbreviate the word pages to a double, lower case pp followed by a full stop
and a space [ pp. 67-72]

Study the examples below carefully, and use them as your guide.
The Explanation:
It is important that readers are able to identify exactly the text to which you refer. Sometimes,
quite different books have the same titles, which is why full publication details including place,
publisher, and date must be included. Later editions of earlier texts often vary quite considerably
so it is important to the reader to know which edition they are reading. When a reader wants to
check your reference, they need to know exactly to which page to go and, in the case of a multivolume work, to which volume.
Examples:
(Note that these examples show how titles should appear in footnotes. The rules for
bibliographies are slightly different. See section3k)

John Holmes, The Art of Rhetoric made easy: or, the Elements of Oratory Briefly Stated, and
fitted for the Practise of the Studious Youth of Great-Britain and Ireland (London: A. Parker, A.
Bettesworth and C. Hitch, 1739), p. 72.
Charles Dickens, Hard Times (1854), ed. Stanley Hammerite (Barnsley: The Luddite Press, 1973),
p.45.
Charles Dickens, Hard Times (1854), ed. Hugo Rillington-Smythe (Henley-on-Thames: The Tallyho
Press, 1989), pp. 63-7.
The Spectator, ed. Donald F. Bond, 5 vols (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1965), II, p. 338.
Markman Ellis, The Politics of Sensibility: Race, Gender and Commerce in the Sentimental Novel
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), p. 72.
Samuel Rawson Gardiner, History of the Commonwealth and Protectorate, 1649-1660, 3 vols
(London: Longmans, Green, 1894-1901), III, pp. 234-5.

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3e. Referencing: Journal Articles

This section shows how you should reference journal articles in your footnotes. The same rules
apply for referencing journal articles in a bibliography except that you do NOT include specific
page references in a bibliography although you DO include the page range of the entire article.
The Rule:
References to journal articles should include the following information in this order:
Author(s), title of article in single quotation marks, Title of Journal in Italics, volume number,
issue number, (publication date), page range of entire article in numbers only, specific page
reference using p. or pp..
Note, both in the above rule and in the examples below, that there are strict rules about using
commas, quotation marks, and full stops. For example:

You should use a comma after a closing bracket [ ), ] but not before an opening bracket [ , (
].
You must NOT use pp. when giving the page range of the entire article.
You should abbreviate the word page to a single, lower case p followed by a full stop and
a space [ p. 67].
You should abbreviate the word pages to a double, lower case pp followed by a full stop
and a space [ pp. 67-72].

Study the examples below carefully, and use them as your guide.
The Explanation:
It is important that readers are able to exactly identify and quickly locate the article to which you
refer. Some journals have been running for many years and there may be dozens or hundreds of
volumes on the shelves. Giving the correct volume number, page numbers, and publication date
makes it easy for a reader to check your references.
The Examples:

William C. Lowe, Peers and Printers: The Beginnings of Sustained Press Coverage of the House
of Lords in the 1770s, Parliamentary History, 7 (1988), 240-56, p. 249.
Northrop Frye, Towards Defining an Age of Sensibility, ELH, 23, 2 (1956), 144-52, p. 145.
Sukhdev Sandhu, Ignatius Sancho and Laurence Sterne, Research in African Literature, 29, 4
(1998), 88-105, pp. 92-4.

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3f. Referencing: Articles in Edited Books

This section shows how you should reference articles from edited books in your footnotes. The
same rules apply for referencing journal articles in a bibliography except that you do NOT include
specific page references in a bibliography although you DO include the page range of the entire
article.
The Rule:
References to articles in edited books should include the following information in this order:
Author(s), title of article in single quotation marks, in Title of Book in Italics, editor(s) of book,
number of volumes if more than one (place of publication: publisher, publication date), volume
reference if applicable, page range of entire article using pp., specific page reference using p. or
pp..
Note, both in the above rule and in the examples below, that there are strict rules about using
commas, quotation marks, and full stops. For example:

You should use a comma after a closing bracket [ ), ] but not before an opening bracket [ , (
].
You MUST use pp. when giving the page range of the entire article.
You should abbreviate the word page to a single, lower case p followed by a full stop and
a space [ p. 67].
You should abbreviate the word pages to a double, lower case pp followed by a full stop
and a space [ pp. 67-72].
You should use the word in before giving the book title.

Study the examples below carefully, and use them as your guide.
The Explanation:
It is important that readers are able to exactly identify and quickly locate the article to which you
refer.
The Example:

T.S. Eliot, The Metaphysical Poets, in Selected Essays 1917-1932 (New York: Harcourt, Brace
and Company, 1932), pp. 241-250, p. 247.
Mary A. Favret, Flogging: the Anti-Slavery Movement Writes Pornography, in Essays and
Studies in Romanticism and Gender, ed. Anne Janowitz (Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 1998), pp. 1943, p. 24.
Bob Tennant, Sentiment, Politics, and Empire: A Study of Beilby Porteuss Antislavery Sermon,
in Discourses of Slavery and Abolition: Britain and its Colonies, 1760-1838, ed. Brycchan Carey,
Markman Ellis, and Sara Salih (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004), pp. 158-74, p. 162.

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3g. Referencing: Newspapers and Magazines

This section shows how you should reference articles from newspapers and magazines in your
footnotes. The same rules apply for referencing newspaper and magazine articles in a
bibliography except that you do NOT include specific page references in a bibliography although
you DO include the page range of the entire article.
The Rule:
References to articles in newspapers and magazines should include the following information in
this order:
Author if known, title of article in single quotation marks, Title of Newspaper or Magazine in
Italics, date of publication, page reference.
The Explanation:
Newspapers and magazines are ephemeral publications and are thus referenced by very specific
dates.
The Example:

Tim Adams, He shall not, he shall not be moved, Observer: Review, 24 July 2005, p. 4
Kate Faithful, Get a celebrity body in 24 hours, Cosmopolitan, July 2005, pp. 108-10.
Karen Styan, It ASDA be champagne for long serving shop assistants, Croydon Post, 25 July
2001, p. 2.

3h. Referencing: shorter works

Most poems and short stories do not appear on their own but appear together with other shorter
works in longer collections. In the main, refer to these in a similar way to articles in edited books
(see section 3.f). The following rules apply:
The Rule:
References to shorter works should include the following information in this order:
Author(s), title of shorter work in single quotation marks (original publication date if applicable),
in Title of Book in Italics, editor(s) of book, number of volumes if more than one (place of
publication: publisher, publication date), volume reference if applicable, page range of entire
shorter work using pp., specific page reference using p. or pp..

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Note, both in the above rule and in the examples below, that there are strict rules about using
commas, quotation marks, and full stops. For example:

You should use a comma after a closing bracket [ ), ] but not before an opening bracket [ , (
].
You MUST use p. or pp. when giving the page range of the entire shorter work.
You should abbreviate the word page to a single, lower case p followed by a full stop and
a space [ p. 67].
You should abbreviate the word pages to a double, lower case pp followed by a full stop
and a space [ pp. 67-72].
You should use the word in before giving the book title.

Study the examples below carefully, and use them as your guide.
The Explanation:
It is important that readers are able to identify exactly the text to which you refer. Sometimes,
poems and short stories can appear in very different forms, which is why full publication details
including place, publisher, and date must be included. Later editions of earlier texts often vary
quite considerably so it is important to the reader to know which edition they are reading. When a
reader wants to check your reference, they need to know exactly which page to go to and, in the
case of a multi-volume work, to which volume.
The Examples:

Tzvetan Toderov, Structural Analysis of Narrative in The Norton Anthology of Theory and
Criticism, ed. Vincent B. Leitch (London: W.W. Norton, 2001), pp. 2099-105.
William Wordsworth, Preface to the Lyrical Ballads (1802), in Selected Poems of William
Wordsworth, ed. Stephen Gill (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1984), pp. 595-615, p. 598.
W.B. Yeats, An Irish Airman Foresees his Death, in The Wild Swans at Coole (London:
Macmillan, 1919), p. 32.
W.B. Yeats, An Irish Airman Foresees his Death (1919), in ed. George MacBeth, Poetry 19001965: an Anthology (London: Longman, 1967), p. 8.

3i. Referencing: Websites

The Rule:
Give full information about where and when you accessed material from websites on the Internet.
Where possible, you should include the following information in this order:
Author if known, Title of web page in quotation marks, <URL in angle brackets>, [date accessed in
square brackets]

20

Study the examples below carefully, and use them as your guide.
The Explanation:
Most plagiarism cases involve material obtained from the Internet. It is thus vitally important that
you cite in full all material found on the Web with clear information on how the reader could
check your reference. Material on the web is subject to change, so you do need to provide the
date on which you accessed the material.
The Examples:

Ex-PMs gather for Heath funeral, <http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4713911.stm>

[accessed 25 July 2005]
Eleni Loukopoulou, London, Language and Empire in the Oxen of the Sun of James Joyces
Ulysses, in Literary London: Interdisciplinary Studies in the Representation of London, 3:1,
<http://www.literarylondon.org/london-journal/Eleni.html> [accessed 24 August 2005]
W.B. Yeats, An Irish Airman Foresees his Death (1919), <http://www.bartleby.com/148/3.html>
[accessed 25 July 2005]

3j. Referencing: Electronic Texts

Increasingly, many books and journals that were previously only available in printed form are now
available in electronic form. These may include text files from Project Gutenberg, books scanned
on Google Books, downloads from Kindle, texts on CD-ROMs, or journal articles made available
through JSTOR or Project Muse. It is just as important to reference these in full, and it is also
important to make clear that you are referring to the electronic version rather than the printed
version.
The Rule:
Give exactly the same information as you would for the printed text, and then afterwards give
details of the electronic source and the date the text was accessed.
Study the examples below carefully, and use them as your guide.
The Explanation:
While electronic versions of texts might in many cases appear identical to the printed version, in
many cases they are different. The version offered for download might be very different from the
printed version in Kingston University Library: it might be an American edition, or an older or more
recent edition, for example. In addition, to avoid accusations of plagiarism, you need to show how
you came across a text as you may have downloaded an electronic copy of book that would be

21

difficult to obtain in a printed format. It is thus vitally important that you cite in full all electronic
texts with clear information on how the reader could check your reference.
The Examples:

Charles Dickens, Hard Times (1854) [Project Gutenberg text download, accessed 15 March 2011]
Charles Dickens, Hard Times (1854) [Kindle download, 17 October 2010]
Charles Dickens, Hard Times (1854) [Full text on Norton Anthology CD-ROM]
Sukhdev Sandhu, Ignatius Sancho and Laurence Sterne, Research in African Literature, 29, 4
(1998), 88-105, pp. 92-4. [On JSTOR, accessed 25 July 2009]
Markman Ellis, The Politics of Sensibility: Race, Gender and Commerce in the Sentimental Novel
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), p. 72. [On Google Books, accessed 3 February
2011]
W.B. Yeats, An Irish Airman Foresees his Death (1919), <http://www.bartleby.com/148/3.html>
[accessed 25 July 2005]

3k. Referencing: Bibliographies

The Rule:
A bibliography brings together in a single place the titles of all the different works you have cited.
You may also include titles from which you have not quoted, but which you think may have
influenced your thinking. You must obey the following rules:

Bibliographies are arranged in alphabetical order by surname of author.

You should not include the page numbers of your quotations in a bibliography.
You must, however, include the page ranges of articles from journals and edited books.
You must not use bullet points or other decoration.
You must use the same font and style as the main body of your text.
You must not put a full stop at the end at the end of each entry.
The second and subsequent line of each entry is normally indented.

The Explanation:
While the footnotes do contain full bibliographical information for the works you cite, it can be a
long process for the reader to have to trawl back through a long essay looking at every footnote
until they find the one they are looking for. The bibliography offers this information at a glance.

22

Because the bibliography does not add in any logical way to your argument, it does not count
towards your word count. If you are in doubt about whether or not to include a title in your
bibliography, it is always better to put it in than to leave it out.

23

Section Four: Style

This section deals with some matters of writing style which you should apply to your work. It also
offers some hints about spelling, grammar, and punctuation.

4a. Abbreviations
The Rules:
1. Abbreviations consisting of capital initial letters (acronyms) do not have full stops.
2. Contractions ending with the same letter as the original word do not take full stops.
3. Contractions ending with a different letter than the original word do take full stops.
The Explanation:
1. Partly this is a matter of fashion, but it is considered wasteful and ungainly to insert full
stops into acronyms.
2. In this case, the full stop marks where letters have been removed. However, since the
letters have been removed from inside the word, a full stop at the end is not required.
3. In this case, the full stop marks where letters have been removed. Since the letters have
been removed from the end of the words, a full stop is added.
The Examples:
1. UK, USA, CASE not U.K., U.S.A., C.A.S.E.
2. Saint, Mister, and Doctor are shortened to St, Mr, Dr not St., Mr., Dr.
3. Editor and Chapter are shortened to ed. ch. not ed or ch

4b. Adjectival Hyphenation

The Rule:
When two words come together to form a noun, they are not hyphenated. However, when the
same two words come together to form an adjective, they are hyphenated.

A noun names a person, animal, place, thing, or abstract idea

An adjective describes, identifies, or quantifies a noun or a pronoun

The Explanation:
This helps the reader distinguish between phrases used as nouns and phrases used as adjectives. It
is particularly important when talking about centuries.
The Example:

24

Consider middle class and nineteenth century.

As nouns:
In the nineteenth century, the middle class grew in size (no hyphens)
As adjectives
Nineteenth-century authors often discussed the rise of middle-class values (use hyphens)

4c. Dates and Numbers

The Rule:

Dates should be written out in the order day month year (14 July 1789). Do NOT use 1st,
2nd, 3rd, etc.
When showing date ranges, use the words from and to (from 1773 to 1783). Do NOT use
hyphens (1773-83)
When referring to a decade, there is NO apostrophe. (the 1780s, the 1950s)
Write the numbers one to one hundred in full but use figures for 101, 102, etc
No comma in numbers up to 9999, but 10,000 and upwards takes a comma

The Explanation:
In part, the way dates and numbers are displayed is a matter of convention. However, it is
generally agreed that these rules make numbers clearer and your writing more elegant. Excessive
commas and contractions, or bad habits such as writing out very long numbers in full (seven
hundred and thirty two thousand instead of 732,000) can make your writing seem cluttered and
inelegant.
The Example:

The 1770s was a time of war; from 1773 to 1783, the British and Americans fought over the
future of the continent. The thirteen American colonies declared independence on 4 July 1776,
but it was not until the 1780s that the new state was internationally recognised. By then, 7200
colonists had died in battle and over 11,000 had succumbed to disease.

25

4d. Punctuation
Most students make errors with punctuation, and some students make a great deal of errors. This
is a shame as poor punctuation can seriously affect the sense of your argument. Many students
find that they lose marks because of inadequate punctuation, and poor punctuation can result in
your marks dropping by 5, 10, or even 25%. In particular, most students make avoidable errors
with commas and with the possessive. You must learn the rules that govern the use of these. The
good news is that there are plenty of helpful books on the subject. There is also a variety of useful
websites. Do remember, however, that British punctuation often varies from American
punctuation, so make sure you use a British book or website, or a website that recognises the
differences. The following sites may be useful:

http://correctpunctuation.explicatus.info/
http://www.informatics.susx.ac.uk/doc/punctuation/node00.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punctuation

You should also make use of CASE for help with punctuation. CASE has a range of handouts that
explain the most important rules of punctuation.

4e. Spelling and Grammar Checking

Most modern word-processing packages offer spelling and grammar checkers. You are advised to
make use of these. In Microsoft Word, you can turn on and adjust spelling and grammar options
by going to:
Office Button Word Options Proofing
Do remember, however, that a spelling checker will only detect whether a word is correctly spelt.
It will knot show weather ewe have used the write word oar the wrong word. Grammar checkers
can be useful, but to use them properly, you do have to understand the rules of grammar. You
should also note that grammar checkers do sometimes make mistakes while Microsoft Word
applies American grammar rules even when the language is set to British English. Accordingly, you
should treat any advice to place a comma before the word which with extreme caution, as this
advice is often (although not always) incorrect.
The essential point with electronic spelling and grammar checkers is to use them as a guide, but to
make the final decision yourself.
Remember: you should also make use of CASE for help with spelling and grammar.

26

Section Five: Getting it Right

This section looks at some common errors found in many essays. Read them carefully and check to
see if there are any mistakes that you have been making perhaps without even realising. Many
students lose marks unnecessarily because of simple and avoidable errors such as those below.
Many of these errors can be avoided by simply reading through your work carefully before you
hand it in. This is known as proofing or proofreading. You may also find it helpful to take your
work to CASE where you can receive a range of assistance with spelling, grammar, punctuation,
and academic presentation as well as help with planning and structuring your work. Check your
module guides for details of the current hours and location of CASE.

5a. Punctuation (again)

Here are some common punctuation errors. There are many more! This is not a guide to
correcting these errors for that you will need to consult a punctuation guide (see section 4d) or
take your work to CASE. Instead, this is a guide to recognising some of the more common
mistakes.
THINK before you use a comma. Almost every essay we mark contains comma errors. In fact, more
than half the commas used by students are used incorrectly. The most common mistake is to add
a comma where no comma is needed. If you are not sure whether to use a comma or not, in most
cases you are probably safest if you leave it out.
THINK before you use apostrophes, plurals, possessives, and inverted commas. Almost every essay
we mark contains a mistake with these. The most common mistake is the infamous greengrocers
apostrophe, so called because it is often seen in greengrocers shops. This is when you include an
apostrophe in a word which is a simple plural. For example, a sign that says lemons 30p is
incorrect. Follow this link for some hilarious examples from real life:

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/vivian.c/Punctuation/ApostGrocers.htm

THINK before you use contractions. In most cases, contractions are not used in academic writing.
For example, in casual writing you might use the contraction dont. In academic writing, however,
you should spell it out in full as do not. Likewise, in casual writing you might use the contraction
its. In academic writing you should spell it out in full as it is. If you do choose to use this
contraction, DO NOT mistake its with its. The former is the contraction for it is while the latter
is a possessive pronoun, similar to his or her. For example:

It is a dog could also be written as its a dog. (its = a contraction of it is)

The dog wags its tail. In this case, its is the possessive, to show that the tail belongs to the
dog.
Look said Peter, its funny when the dog wags its tail!

27

5b. Spelling
Every essay we mark contains spelling mistakes. You may think that you are the worlds best
speller, but the chances are that a few spelling mistakes will creep into your essays. Of course, just
one or two tiny errors will probably not affect your overall mark unduly, but many essays we mark
contain spelling mistakes on every page and, in some cases, in every sentence. It looks sloppy and,
if they make your meaning unclear, spelling mistakes can obscure your argument and significantly
depress your overall mark. Here are just a few of the most common errors:
They sound the same, but Some words might sound the same, but they may have different
meanings. For example, it is very common to see students mix up the words their, there, and
theyre. Their is the third person plural possessive adjective; there is in most cases an adverb
meaning the opposite of here; theyre is the contraction of they are. For example:

Here are their dogs (possessive)

There is your dog (adverb)
Theyre taking the dogs for a walk (contraction of they are)
Theyre taking their dogs over there (contraction, possessive, adverb)

Words that sound the same but have different spellings are called homophones. There are
several websites listing the many homophones in the English language, but some commonly
confused ones include: allowed/aloud; hear/here; new/knew; to/too/two; weather/whether. Be
extra careful when using homophones to check that you are using the right word.
The Words That Spell Check Forgot: you might make a spelling mistake but, by chance, the word
you typed in is actually a real word but with a different meaning from that intended. The spell
check on your computer will not notice that you have made a mistake, and you might then have
written quite the wrong thing with hilarious consequences. Here are some examples taken from
genuine student essays:

According to Milton, Satin was the cause of mans first disobedience

Horace wrote satire in a genital fashion
The ideology of sentimentalism was seen as depilating gender differences
Shakespeares sonnets were arranged post humorously

Here are five words that everybody gets wrong on occasion:

Form when you mean from

Loose when you mean lose
Lead when you mean led
Societies when you mean societys
Lay when you mean lie

The solution is simple: make sure that you carefully check your work before submitting it.
American or British? If you are British, use British spellings. If you are American, use American
spellings. If you are using English as your second language, choose at the outset of an essay
whether you are going to be using British or American conventions. We do not mind which you

28

use, but do not use a mixture of both. So, use British colour, centre, defence or use American
color, center, defense.

5c. Choosing the Right Word

When you are writing an essay, you want it to sound authoritative and academic. So, you tend to
choose words that you might not use in everyday speech. Sometimes, however, you might be
tempted to use the wrong word. This could be for a number of reasons. Perhaps you are in the
habit of using a word without really understanding what it means or perhaps you have read or
heard a word in another context and you think it imparts a certain authoritative tone to your
work! Unfortunately, however, many students end up using the wrong word. Here are a few
examples for you to avoid.
Jargon: every profession and discipline, including literary criticism, has its own specialised
language. However, it is important to use specialised language judiciously and accurately.
Excessive use of specialised terms can sound pretentious or even meaningless. Often, it is better
to use plain language with just one or two specialised terms. For example, one student wrote the
following jargon-laden sentence: Any epistemological episteme, paradigm, or a priori must
include within its parameters and definitions an historical and cultural relativism that takes into
account the very epistemological epistemes, paradigms, and a priori of our own historically
determined location. While this is certainly a very precise statement, he might instead have said
all knowledge needs to be understood in context which, in most cases, would be just as accurate
and certainly much easier to follow!
Legalese: many students pepper their essays with legal English: the specialised language of
lawyers. Because lawyers are used to speaking both accurately and precisely, many students
believe that words such as aforementioned, abovementioned, thereunto, and hereunto make
their essay sound more authoritative. Of these words, the most misused is aforementioned.
Instead, trying saying something like as we saw earlier or in the poem which I discussed above.
We Dont Know Why You Do This, But You Do There are a few words that, for no reason that we
can work out, many students use incorrectly or injudiciously. Here are a few of the most common:

States. This word is often misused when introducing quotations from literary critics. For
example, in many essays students write something like Ian Watt states that the novel was
an invention of the eighteenth century. In most cases, though, states is too strong a word.
Literary critics are more like to offer opinions or present arguments than state facts. It is
usually better to write something like Ian Watt suggests or Ian Watt argues
Within. Many of you use the word within when the word in would be preferable.
Within means completely enclosed by. Thus, a sentence such as Within Shakespeares
plays is incorrect as it means completely enclosed by Shakespeares plays. The correct form
would be in Shakespeares plays.
Whereby. This is one of those almost meaningless words that is used far too often. Avoid it
if possible.

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5d. Presenting your Evidence

In an academic essay, as in any other area of life, you need to back up your statements with
evidence. Your evidence can come from a number of sources: from works of literary criticism and
theory, from books about history, art, and culture and, of course, from the literary texts you are
examining. Whenever you make a statement, you need to provide evidence, and whenever you
provide evidence, you need to show the source of your evidence. As well as making sure that you
provide full and accurate references for your sources, as outlined in Section Three of this style
guide, you also need to think about the type of evidence you offer, and the way you introduce and
present that evidence. This section gives some examples of poor practice, with suggested
improvements.
Show Your Sources: one of the most frequently encountered errors in essay writing is the
unverified statement. For example, a statement such as D.H. Lawrence was born in the
Nottinghamshire town of Eastwood is true and is even fairly well known, but if you are to make
this point in an essay, you need to show how you know. In this case, you would need to cite a
reliable biography of D.H. Lawrence. Similarly, if you were to make a statement such as in
Victorian England, disease claimed many lives, you would need to back up your statement with
reference to a social or medical history of Victorian England.
Avoid Generalisations: a common error in essays is to make a very general statement that glosses
over what might be a complex reality. For example, many students have made statements such as
in the eighteenth century, all women were oppressed. The trouble with a statement like this is
that, by using the word all the statement becomes far too general. It puts Queen Anne on the
same footing as a prosperous farmers wife or a Jamaican slave woman. A better statement would
be something like most eighteenth-century women experienced some form of oppression and
then back up your statement with evidence.
Name Those Critics: a very common form of generalisation is to refer to a critical debate without
naming the participants in the debate. For example, it is common to see a statement such as
many critics have argued that The Wasteland is the greatest poem of the twentieth century. This
may well be true, but you will need to name those critics, giving a quotation from one or more of
them as an example, and citing their work in full.
Check the Facts: it may seem obvious, but if you are going to make a point, you should at least
check to see if it is true! Many essays are let down by silly errors such as misremembered dates or
half-remembered facts. For example, the student who noted (in an essay on Paradise Lost) that
Charles I was executed in 1648 was only a few weeks out (he was actually executed in January
1649) but this little error looked sloppy. These sorts of facts are easily checked!
Avoid Unreliable Sources: be careful when checking facts as not all sources are reliable. Be
particularly cautious when using the internet. One website to use very carefully is Wikipedia. This
is a useful site for gaining a general overview of a subject, but the site contains many, many errors
of fact, and is also very inconsistent about the level of information it offers. For example,
Wikipedia dedicates eight pages to James Joyce and about 250 to J.K. Rowling. Which do you think
is the more important author? In general, it is best to avoid using Wikipedia and other internet
sources in academic work.

30

Avoid Quoting from a Dictionary: it is not considered good style or evidence of adequate research
to quote from a dictionary in academic work (or in life more generally: think of all those terrible
best man speeches that start with the dictionary defines marriage as). The only time it is
acceptable to quote from a dictionary is when you are examining the way a word has changed its
meaning over time. For example, you might argue that the word Romantic, which now has so
many positive connotations, meant foolish or foolhardy to most eighteenth-century readers.
Were you to argue this, the only dictionary you should cite as evidence is The Oxford English
Dictionary (thirteen volumes, in the library).
Introduce and Contextualise Your Quotations: when you quote from a text, you should make sure
that the quote fits into the sense of your own writing. Compare these two:
Many of the Harry Potter stories are set in school. Rowling has successfully adapted the
school story genre to resonate with modern authors. Hogwarts combines old and new.
Many of the Harry Potter stories are set in school and, according to Karen Manners Smith,
Rowling has successfully adapted the school story genre to resonate with modern authors.
Indeed, we see many ways in which Hogwarts combines old and new.
The second example successfully contextualises the quotation from Smith, making the relationship
between the quotation and the argument clear.

5e. And Finally

In 1946, George Orwell wrote an essay called Politics and the English Language in which he
offered six rules for effective writing. Sixty years on, these are still useful rules to bear in mind.
Here they are:
1. Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in
print.
2. Never use a long word where a short one will do.
3. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
4. Never use the passive where you can use the active.
5. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an
everyday English equivalent.
6. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.

Kingston University English Department

Style Sheet. 11 March 2011
Author Brycchan Carey