This is by far the most important thing to get right, since it takes a good deal of time to correct. In the Victorian Web brief bibliographical notes become in-text citations, and very short notes become incorporated into the main text; longer notes become separate documents with their own titles that link to the main text. Include a list of works cited at the foot of each individual lexia (document) and then use the Chicago and MLA short form of in-text citation, which means in practice that you provide only as much information in the parenthetical reference as is absolutely necessary.
Identifying the source of quoted material: if you introduce quoted material by "According to Spurgeon's Sermons," you have already identified the author and text and now only need to provide a page number: "quoted text" (34).
If, however, you write, "According to a famous Victorian preacher," you do have to provide the necessary information (author and text) in abbreviated form with just enough detail to permit readers to find the full citation in your list of references: "quoted text" (Spurgeon, Sermons, 34).
When citing or quoting more than one work by the same author, use a short title if readers cannot otherwise determine the source of your passage. Remember, though, if you make clear the author or work in your discussion, you only need to provide a page number.
Rules for handling quoted material: The Victorian Web house style follows the 17th edition of The Chicago Manual of Style. If unsure what changes you can make in quoted material, punctuation, ellipses, and the like, consult section 13 “Quotations and Dialogue” (pp. 707-38).
Bibliography
Please format your bibliographic entries according to the 17th edition of The Chicago Manual of Style. Examples:
Spurgeon, Charles. Sermons. London: Rivington, 1843.
Ruskin, John. Works. 39 vols. Eds. E. T. Cook and Alexander Wedderburn. London: Allen and Unwin, 1902-12.
Smith, James. "Tennyson's Heroines." Victoriana 3 (1996): 23-35.
Related Material
- Guidelines for contributors
- Preparing Your Work for the Victorian Web: Basic HTML
- General House Style and Formatting Rules (useful for most documents)
- Formatting rules for style2.css documents
- Headers
- Footers
- Some Easy Ways to Strengthen Your Writing
Last modified 11 October 2021