MHRA Referencing in Google Docs: Complete 2026 Guide
Set up footnotes, a bibliography, and correct quotation formatting in Google Docs for MHRA style — the system most UK English, History, and Modern Languages departments expect.
MHRA style shows up across English literature, History, Theology, and Modern Languages courses at UK universities, and it's easy to mix up with the more general “Oxford referencing” family it's related to. Both use superscript footnotes and a bibliography instead of parenthetical citations — but MHRA has its own rules for page abbreviations, quotation punctuation, and how to handle quoted text in a foreign language, all of which examiners in humanities departments check closely.
This guide walks through MHRA referencing in Google Docs from a blank page to a submission-ready essay, including the details — single quotation marks, “p.” before page numbers, translated quotations — that separate it from Oxford, Chicago, and OSCOLA.
1. What MHRA Style Actually Is
MHRA style comes from the MHRA Style Guide, published by the Modern Humanities Research Association and used as the house style for many of its journals and by English, History, and Modern Languages departments across the UK. Like Oxford referencing, it's a footnote-and-bibliography system:
- A superscript number in the body text, placed after the punctuation of the sentence being cited.
- A matching footnote at the bottom of the same page giving the full source details on first citation.
- A full bibliography at the end, listing every source alphabetically by author surname.
Where MHRA diverges from generic Oxford referencing: it always includes “p.” or “pp.” before page numbers, it uses single quotation marks for article and chapter titles (double marks only for a quotation inside a quotation), and it has specific conventions for quoting non-English sources that literature and languages essays run into constantly.
Always check your own department's handbook first — some faculties adapt MHRA slightly, and your marker will be checking against whatever version they distributed, not the general guide below.
2. Document Setup: Font, Margins, and Spacing
Start from a blank Google Doc rather than a downloaded template — templates often carry hidden formatting that only shows up once footnotes start pushing text around the page.
Font and size
Select everything with Ctrl+A (Windows) or Cmd+A (Mac) and set the font to Times New Roman, 12 pt. MHRA doesn't mandate a specific typeface, but a plain serif font at 12 pt is the standard expectation across humanities departments — follow your handbook if it says otherwise.
Margins
Go to File > Page setup and set all four margins to 1 inch (2.5 cm). Set this before you start writing — changing margins after footnotes are in place can shift where they land on the page.
Line spacing
- Go to Format > Line & paragraph spacing > Double.
- From the same menu, click Remove space after paragraph.
Body text is double-spaced; footnotes are single-spaced, which Google Docs applies automatically without you needing to change anything. Turning off the default paragraph spacing keeps the double-spacing consistent instead of looking padded.
Setup checklist
- Times New Roman, 12 pt (or your department's specified font)
- 1-inch (2.5 cm) margins on all four sides
- Double-spaced body text, no extra space after paragraphs
- Single-spaced footnotes (Google Docs handles this by default)
3. Inserting and Formatting Footnotes
Insert a footnote
- Place the cursor immediately after the closing punctuation of the sentence you're citing.
- Go to Insert > Footnote (or press Ctrl+Alt+F on Windows / Cmd+Option+F on Mac).
- A superscript number appears in the body, with a matching number at the bottom of the page.
- Type the citation in the footnote area.
Google Docs renumbers footnotes automatically whenever you add or remove one earlier in the essay — never type a footnote number by hand, and never insert a footnote before the punctuation mark it belongs to.
First citation vs. shortened citation
MHRA gives a full citation the first time a source appears, then switches to a shortened form — surname, short title, and page number — for every citation after that:
First citation:
1. Terry Eagleton, Literary Theory: An Introduction, 2nd edn (Oxford: Blackwell, 1996), p. 34.
Same source, immediately after:
2. Ibid., p. 41.
Same source, after other sources appear in between:
3. Eagleton, Literary Theory, p. 52.
“Ibid.” (with a full stop, since it's an abbreviation) is only correct when the footnote directly above cites the same source with nothing else in between. As soon as a different source appears, switch to the shortened surname-and-title form rather than continuing with Ibid.
Footnote checklist
- Superscript number placed after punctuation, not before
- Numbers auto-generated by Google Docs, never typed manually
- Full citation on first use, shortened form (surname, short title, page) afterward
- “Ibid.” used only when the immediately preceding footnote cites the same source
- “p.” or “pp.” included before every page reference
4. Common Source Types: Footnote and Bibliography Patterns
Notice that the bibliography version of each entry drops the specific page number (or lists the article's full page range instead) and moves the surname to the front for alphabetizing:
Book — footnote:
4. Terry Eagleton, Literary Theory: An Introduction, 2nd edn (Oxford: Blackwell, 1996), p. 34.
Book — bibliography:
Eagleton, Terry, Literary Theory: An Introduction, 2nd edn (Oxford: Blackwell, 1996)
Chapter in an edited book — footnote:
5. Gillian Beer, ‘Origins and Oblivion in Victorian Narrative’, in Sex, Politics and Science in the Nineteenth-Century Novel, ed. by Ruth Bernard Yeazell (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986), pp. 63–87 (p. 70).
Chapter — bibliography:
Beer, Gillian, ‘Origins and Oblivion in Victorian Narrative’, in Sex, Politics and Science in the Nineteenth-Century Novel, ed. by Ruth Bernard Yeazell (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986), pp. 63–87
Journal article — footnote:
6. Rachel Bowlby, ‘Domestication’, Feminism Beside Itself, 12 (2019), 71–91 (p. 78).
Journal article — bibliography:
Bowlby, Rachel, ‘Domestication’, Feminism Beside Itself, 12 (2019), 71–91
Website — footnote:
7. The British Library, ‘Romanticism’ <https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/romanticism> [accessed 14 July 2026].
Article and chapter titles take single quotation marks; book and journal titles are italicized. Page ranges use an en dash (–), not a hyphen, and the specific page you're citing goes in brackets at the end when the footnote also gives the full range.
5. Quoting Text: Punctuation and Foreign-Language Sources
This is the part of MHRA that trips up literature and languages students specifically:
- Single quotation marks first. Use single marks (‘’) for quotations in running text, and reserve double marks (“”) only for a quotation that appears inside another quotation.
- Long quotations are set off as block quotes. Quotations of roughly 40 words or more (check your handbook's exact threshold) start on a new line, indent 0.5" from the left margin, and don't use quotation marks — the indent signals the quote.
- Ellipses show omitted text. Use three spaced dots in square brackets, […], to mark where you've cut material from a quotation — not a plain unbracketed ellipsis.
- Foreign-language quotations stay in the original, followed by an English translation in the footnote (or in the body in brackets), unless your module specifically asks for translation only.
For block quotes, highlight the passage and go to Format > Align & indent > Indentation options, then set the left indent to 0.5". Keep block quotes single-spaced if your handbook distinguishes them from the double-spaced body — some departments keep everything double-spaced instead, so check first.
6. Building the Bibliography Page
Start on a new page
Insert a page break with Ctrl+Enter / Cmd+Enter after your last paragraph. Center the word Bibliography in plain text at the top, then return to left alignment for the entries.
Apply hanging indents
- Type or paste every entry, one per paragraph.
- Highlight all entries.
- Go to Format > Align & indent > Indentation options.
- Under Special indent, choose Hanging and set it to 0.5 in.
- Click Apply.
Alphabetize by the author's surname — which leads the entry in the bibliography, unlike the footnote where the given name comes first. If a source has no named author, alphabetize it by the organization name or the first significant word of the title, ignoring “A,” “An,” and “The.”
Bibliography checklist
- Starts on a new page with a real page break, not blank lines
- “Bibliography” centered and plain at the top
- Surname first for every author entry
- 0.5" hanging indent applied to every entry
- Alphabetized by surname (or organization/title if no author)
- Full page range given for chapters and articles, not just the page cited
- Every bibliography entry matches at least one footnote in the body
7. Common Mistakes in Google Docs
| Mistake | What it looks like | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Double quotation marks in running text | “the self is a narrative” used instead of ‘the self is a narrative’ | Use single marks first; double marks only for a quote inside a quote |
| Missing “p.” before page numbers | “(1996) 34” instead of “(1996), p. 34” | Always include “p.” or “pp.” before a page reference |
| Given name first in the bibliography | “Terry Eagleton” used in the bibliography | Bibliography entries always lead with the surname: “Eagleton, Terry” |
| Hyphen instead of en dash in page ranges | “pp. 63-87” typed with a plain hyphen | Use an en dash (–) — Google Docs autocorrects this if you type a space around a hyphen between numbers |
| Unbracketed ellipsis in a quotation | “the argument … falls apart” with no brackets | Bracket omissions as […] to show they're your edit, not the author's |
8. Final Submission Checklist
Switch to Print layout (View > Print layout) for a final read-through before you export:
- Times New Roman 12 pt (or your department's specified font) throughout body and footnotes
- 1-inch (2.5 cm) margins on all sides
- Body double-spaced, footnotes single-spaced
- Footnote superscripts placed after punctuation, never before
- Full citation on first use, shortened form afterward, “Ibid.” only when directly repeating
- Single quotation marks in running text, italics for book and journal titles
- “p.” or “pp.” before every page reference, en dashes in page ranges
- Bibliography starts on a new page with a real page break
- Surname-first entries, alphabetized, with a 0.5" hanging indent
- Every footnote source also appears in the bibliography, and vice versa
Submit as a PDF unless your instructor requires .docx: File > Download > PDF Document (.pdf). Open the exported file and scroll through it — footnotes at the bottom of each page, the bibliography's hanging indents, and italicized titles should all look exactly as they did in the editor. Fix anything that shifted in the Doc and re-export before uploading.
One More Thing: The Argument Underneath the Footnotes
Immaculate MHRA formatting doesn't protect an essay from an AI detection flag on the analysis itself. UK humanities departments increasingly run AI checks alongside plagiarism software, and AI-drafted close reading tends to read as generic paraphrase rather than an argument built from the specific quotations you've just footnoted.
AuraWrite AI rewrites AI-assisted drafts so the analysis reads like your own critical voice — keeping the quotations, structure, and citations intact — while bringing the AI detection score back into the human range. Run your draft through the humanizer before you add footnotes and the bibliography, then apply the MHRA formatting to the cleaned-up text.
Humanize your essay before you submit
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Conclusion
MHRA referencing in Google Docs comes down to the same core mechanics as any footnote style — auto-generated footnotes, a hanging-indent bibliography, consistency between the two — plus a handful of details that are specifically MHRA: single quotation marks first, “p.” before every page number, en dashes in ranges, and careful handling of long or foreign-language quotations.
Get those details right once, and every essay after it is a matter of repeating the pattern — not re-reading the style guide from page one.
Last updated: July 14, 2026