How do I cite the same source multiple times in an essay?

Hi, I'm currently busy writing my first history essay (good luck to other humanities students going through this too btw we've got this we're slaying it) and I'm agonizing over citations and trying to get used to applying the MHRA style to my references/sources. I've been reading the style guide but the explanations don't really help my case specifically. Throughout my essay, I reference the same book several times but I'm not entirely sure how to properly cite it in a number of ways. Firstly I'm using individual pages from it and I know I should be listing them as "pp. 34-40", but if I've already cited the source next to one sentence, and I go on to reference the same point later on, would it be necessary for me to put the same citation number next to several different sentences? I'd imagine different numbers in reference to one source throughout a single paragraph would look awkward and clunky but if it's the way to do it I will. Also, at what point in a paragraph would I place a citation if the whole paragraph makes references to one single source? Obviously I'd use quotation marks throughout my writing if I'm repeating direct words but I'm not sure whether the whole paragraph would be sufficiently credited if I just added a citation right at the very end of it. I'm very wary of accidentally plagiarizing something and I'm doing everything I can to avoid it so I'd be very grateful for any advice. Thank you! :smile:

Reply 1

LJ234

I just add the citation multiple times throughout, after the major ideas in a paragraph or whatever. I’ve never been told off for that and you’d rather over-cite than under-cite lol. I can’t be of much help for page numbers since I never put them as I only ever use scientific journals online lol sorry, maybe just list all the page numbers next to the one reference and then include the specific one in the citation? They’ll tell you what you’ve done wrong and how to do it better for next time. If you don’t want to wait till then, could you email a staff member to clear it up?

Don’t worry about it though because I’ve written whole reports where the majority of my points come from the same reference and no one’s ever said anything so it can’t be that bad haha

Reply 2

McKerrow_History

Here's the MHRA style below. What don't you understand:

Note: The first time you cite a source, full details are given. Additional references to the same source are then provided in abbreviated form.

The first time you cite a source, full details should be given.
e.g. Geoffrey Nowell-Smith, Luchino Visconti, 3rd edn. (London: BFI, 2003), p. 137

Subsequent references to the same source can then be abbreviated to the surname and page number(s).
e.g. Nowell-Smith, p. 142

If more than one work by an author is cited, a short title can be used for subsequent references. e.g. Nowell-Smith, Visconti, p. 142

Further references to the same source and use of ibid

ibid. means “in the same place”. If two or more consecutive references are from the same source, then they are cited using ibid.

For example...
1. Jonathan Kalb, Beckett in Performance (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989), p. 12.
2. ibid., p. 17.
3. ibid., p. 36.