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History Faculty Style Guide
This document applies to all coursework submitted for examination in the Historical Tripos (Themes & Sources Long Essays, Special Subject Long Essays and Dissertations) and the History and Politics Tripos (Long Essays and Dissertations submitted to the History Faculty). Contents
Introduction
Section I: Compulsory Requirements
A. Word count
B. Presentation matters
C. Miscellaneous matters
D. Basic compulsory guidelines for footnotes E. Basic compulsory guidelines for bibliography Section II: Example of good practice: recommended style conventions for footnotes and bibliography A. Footnotes B. Bibliography Section I gives compulsory requirements for all coursework : these include the regulations for the word count; presentational matters including line spacing, page numbers, margins, font; for miscellaneous matters; and basic compulsory requirements for footnotes and bibliography. Section II gives an example of a specific style for footnotes and bibliography, adapted from Cambridge University Press guidelines for Humanities and Social Sciences, which is recommended but optional. So long as the guidelines set out in Section I are observed, students may choose from any documented style for footnotes and bibliography, on condition that they apply it sensibly and consistently. They may wish to consult, for example, the style adopted by journals in the field of their submission, or the Chicago Manual of Style, 17th edition (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2017 ), or the compact version thereof in Kate L. Turabian, A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations , 9th ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2018 ). This latitude in style choice has been introduced because academic styles vary widely among different journals and publishers, and it would be misleading to require students to adhere to a single system as if that were likely to be the only system required of them in the future. What students need to learn is to be consistent and clear in their use of any given style, and this is what the combination of compulsion and flexibility in this guide seeks to inculcate.
Section I: Compulsory Requirements
A. Word count
- The word count for each piece of coursework is clearly stated in the relevant essay or dissertation guide.
- The word count must be strictly observed. Students can expect to be penalized for exceeding or falling short of the prescribed word limits.
- The word count includes : a. Statistical graphs, charts, tables, and digital objects, each of which should be counted at 150 words. However, technical explanations accompanying digital objects (where necessary) are not included in the word count. b. Appendices (if any): which should be included, if at all, only in dissertations, on the advice of your supervisor, and never in Long Essays. Permission may however be sought from the Faculty Board to exclude from the word count an appendix which for the convenience of the examiners reproduces a little-known or difficult-to-access text or source being discussed: see the Dissertation Guidelines for the procedure to be followed. c. Chapter and section headings. d. Captions for illustrations and maps.
- The word count excludes : a. Footnotes. However, footnotes should be restricted to the documentation of claims and the registration of relevant caveats or observations in relation to the literature. Footnotes must not be used to circumvent the word-count length in relation to the argument of the essay or dissertation; examiners have the discretion to penalise work which grossly abuses the purpose of footnotes. See below for further instructions on footnotes. b. Bibliography. See below for further instructions on bibliography. c. Prefatory material: title page, table of contents (for dissertations only: see B. 7 below), acknowledgements page (optional), abbreviations list (optional: see C.3.b below). d. Illustrations and maps, including cover images. If you include these, please ensure that they are clear and legible and provided with appropriate captions. The captions do count in the word count, as stated in A.3.d above; however, technical explanations of digital objects are not included, as stated in A.3.a. above. A technical explanation is narrowly defined as any text strictly necessary to understanding the digital object it accompanies. e. Passages duplicated because of the requirement to supply translations of sources in foreign languages (see section C.4). Students may supply either the original foreign-language source or the translation in the body of the text, as they see fit. Those who have quoted from the original foreign-language source should supply the translation in the footnotes, and vice versa. Since these duplicated passages are placed in the footnotes, they are not included in the overall word count. However, note that if the submission goes on to discuss the translation as part of the argument, there the translated words should be counted normally.
- Calculating and verifying the word count: the word count should be conducted on the main body of the text, excluding prefatory material and bibliography, and setting the 'word count' tool to exclude footnotes from the word count. B. Presentation matters
- The text should be double-spaced, with the exception of footnotes, which should be single-spaced.
- Submissions should be typed and printed single-sided.
- Abbreviations and reference conventions a. The following are standard abbreviations which you may employ without having to list them or explain them to the reader: ed., eds., edn editor, editors, edition f., ff. following page or pages fol. and fols folio, folios MS and MSS manuscript(s) qu quoted r. recto sig. signature number trans. translated (by) v. verso vol., vols. volume, volumes Note that abbreviations are followed with a point: ch., vol., vols. Contractions have no following point, so edn, Dr, St are correct. b. You may also give standard (or where there are no standard, invented) abbreviations for journals or materials to which you will be referring frequently in the text or notes. These abbreviations should be listed on a page at the beginning of the submission, which as stated above does not count toward the word limit. Examples are EHR ( English Historical Review ), MGHSS (Monumenta Germaniae Historica Scriptores). c. Websites should be cited in roman without angle brackets: http://www.cambridge.org. Although some authorities now counsel that there is no need to give the date of access to a site, the DNB and other important historical sources recommend it in view of frequent updating, and so you should include it, adapting the following form as appropriate: John Morrill, ‘Cromwell, Oliver (1599-1658)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, May 2006 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/6765, accessed 15 June 2007]. However, you should avoid citing websites where unnecessary, e.g. where a manuscript or source is readily available in print. d. To cite an interview that you have conducted, give the name of the person interviewed ( unless the interviewee has asked to remain anonymous), the kind of interview (e.g. Personal interview, Telephone interview), and the date, for example: Boris Johnson. Personal Interview. 25 December 20 19. The primary source section of your bibliography must include a list of interviewees (anonymised as necessary), indicating the date and location of the interview, unless the latter compromises the anonymity of the source.
- Images a. Insert images in or at the end of the text, accompanied by a caption which clearly indicates as much as possible of the following information: artist/author;
medium (oil/watercolour/pen and ink/engraving, etc.); date; location of the original; where you found the picture. The caption, which is included in the word-count, should be kept as short as possible. The images must be numbered in order of appearance (1, 2, 3 etc.). b. Size: whatever can be reproduced comfortably on the page. (For the purposes of uploading a digital copy to Moodle, the overall file size of your essay or dissertation should not exceed 40MB.) c. You do not have to put your images in the bibliography. Instead, include a separate List of Images, where you identify the images by their number and then give the same information as in paragraph a, above.
- Translation of Sources Where foreign language sources have been consulted, quotations should be given in the original language with a translation in the footnotes, or vice versa. If sources have been used in translation, the edition/translation consulted must be clear, and only the English version should be cited. For guidance on how this affects the word count, see A.4.e above. Please note that this guideline does not apply to foreign terms commonly used in English, e.g. ‘Ancien régime.’ D. Basic compulsory guidelines for footnotes
- Use footnotes, not endnotes, for Faculty submissions (though note that most journals require text to be submitted as endnotes for eventual printing as footnotes). These footnotes should give a full form of the reference when first used, in whatever consistent style is adopted (see Section II for a recommended style). Do not use the author-date system – Skinner, 1969 – in either text or footnotes : although this system is used in some types of scholarly works, it is not well suited to most kinds of history and it is important for historians to learn to use a full reference footnoting system.
- See A.4.a. above for the golden rule on footnotes, which can be loosely summarized as keeping footnotes as brief as possible, essentially for reference and not digressions. Example of a footnote which would meet the A.4.a. guideline: See D.S. Allen, The World of Prometheus (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000), who however understates the extent to which the Athenians felt bound by their laws. Example of a footnote which would violate the A.4.a. guideline: Allen argues that the Athenians determined their own law, without professional judges, legislators, or bureaucrats, and that this led them to see the law as a tool to use in rhetorical argument rather than as a binding and independent constraint. However this understates the extent to which the Athenians felt bound by their laws. They referred to them as ‘the laws of Solon’ and appeal to the laws, or to their violation, was a trump card in political dispute.
- Don’t over-footnote, but do make clear which reference goes with which item (don’t put five or six citations all in one footnote at the end of a paragraph, but key each to its relevant sentence). Where you have several references in a single footnote, separate items by a semi-colon. In most cases, the footnote indicator comes at the end of a sentence.
- Put a full stop at the end of every footnote.
[Here ‘pp.135-7’ are the specific pages to which reference is being made; there is alternatively a different convention, of dropping the ‘p.’ or ‘pp.’ when a volume number is cited, as here.] G. S. Rousseau and Pat Rogers (eds.), The enduring legacy: Alexander Pope, tercentenary essays (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988), p. 44. [Here ‘p.44’ is the specific page to which reference is being made. CUP style permits the ‘p.’ here, but its use is not mandatory, and you may choose to omit it so long as you do so consistently.] Chapter in edited volume: Charles Taylor, ‘The hermeneutics of conflict’, in Meaning and context: Quentin Skinner and his critics , ed. James Tully (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1988), 218-28. [Here ‘218-28’ is the complete page range of the chapter.] Journal articles: Elizabeth Salter, ‘Piers Plowman and the pilgrimage to truth’, Essays and Studies 11 (1958), 34-48. [Here ‘11’ is the volume number, which must be given, and ‘34-48’ is the complete page range of the article. As the Salter example shows, it is not necessary to give the journal issue number or month in addition to the volume. If you do decide to adopt a convention of giving either issue number or month (which must be done consistently), omit the other: so either Journal of American History 91:4 (2005), or Journal of American History 91 (March 2005), but not Journal of American History 91:4 (March 2005).] Arthur Jerrold Tieje, ‘A peculiar phase of the theory of realism in pre-Richardsonian fiction’, PMLA 28 (1913), 213-52, at p.214. [Here PMLA would have to have been explained in an abbreviations list, otherwise spelt out here at first reference.] Printed primary sources: The reference should begin with the author’s name, as below, and the editor or translator’s name, if available, should be provided after the title. Examples: Gregory I, The Letters of Gregory the Great , trans. J. C. Martyn, 3 vols (Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 2004). Einhard, Vita Karoli , c. 12, ed. O. Holder-Egger, MGH SRG (Hanover: Hahn, 1911), p. 15. Calendar of the Patent Rolls Preserved in the Public Record Office, 1216-1509, 54 vols (London: Public Record Office, 1891-1916). Pepys, Samuel, The Diary of Samuel Pepys. A New and Complete Transcription , eds. W. Matthews, W. Armstrong, R. Latham, 11 vols (London: Bell, 1970-83).
Manuscript material: Richardson to Lady Bradshaigh, 15 December 1748, ‘Richardson / Bradshaigh letters’, Forster collection, XI, fol. 7, Harvard University. Unpublished theses or dissertations: H. R. Southall, ‘Regional unemployment patterns in Britain, 1851 to 1914’, unpublished PhD thesis, University of Cambridge (1984), p. 72. Films, sound recordings, music videos, television programmes: Use common sense to construct a consistent system of referencing. Include the date produced and for films, the country and director. Example: Kate Nickerson [Arnold Manoff nom de plume], writer, and Sidney Lumet, director, ‘The Death of Socrates: 399 B.C.’, episode of ‘You Are There’, CBS, national USA broadcast, 3 May 1953.
- Short reference After the first mention, references to the source in the notes should take a shortened form. A shortened reference includes only the last name of the author and an improvised short title for the book (containing the key word or words from the main title, so as to make the reference easily recognisable and not to be confused with any other work), followed by the page number of the reference. Thus: Books: Rousseau and Rogers (eds.), Enduring legacy , p. 45. Runnock, Medieval fortress building , p. 74. Articles: Salter, ‘Pilgrimage to truth’, pp.34-5. Tieje, ‘A peculiar phase’, p.75. Manuscript material: Southall, ‘Regional unemployment’, p. 72. ‘Richardson / Bradshaigh letters’, fol. 116. BN n.a.fr. 20628 (Thiers Papers), fol. 279.
- Miscellaneous The author may be separated from the short title, e.g. in footnote formulations such as: As Runnock observes, the fortress inevitably had a secondary religious function. Medieval fortress building , p. 134. You may choose to use ‘Ibid.’ [no italics] to refer to the work mentioned in the immediately preceding reference, so long as there is no danger of confusion. So: Runnock, Medieval fortress building , p. 134. Ibid., p. 108.
However, an alternative to the above convention is widely used by medieval historians: this is to give the alphabetical listing by the place, followed by the library, and then the shelf mark of the collection. Medievalists should follow this convention and others may choose to do so on the advice of their supervisor. Examples: Oxford, Bodleian Library, Rawlinson MS D.36. Papers on learning collected by Francis Turner. Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Clm. 14000 (s.ix², court school of Charles the Bald). London, British Library, MS Cotton Nero D.IV (s.viiex, Northumbria, Lindisfarne Gospels). (Updated 2019- 20 )
