By Lisa Healy and Julie Baker,
The Daily Record Newswire
We have heard the Bluebook described in many ways: “incomprehensible,” “impossible” and, by one particularly exasperated attorney, “ruthless.” But like all rules, Bluebook rules don’t exist just to annoy you. In addition to providing proper attribution and authority, they can actually make your writing clearer and more concise.
Leaving out citation in an argument is costly — it is much more persuasive when the state Supreme Court says something than it is when you say it. However, don’t fall into the bad habit of thinking that the more citations and parentheticals you glob on at the end of a sentence, the more persuasive that sentence will be. Here are a few tricks to using signals and parentheticals more effectively:
— If there are several cases that say something similar, use a signal (E.g. or See, e.g.,) to indicate that, while you are only providing the citation to one case, many cases have said the same thing:
— Public school students retain their constitutional rights while at school. See, e.g., Tinker v. Des Moines Indep. Cmty. Sch. Dist., 393 U.S. 503, 506 (1969) (“It can hardly be argued that either students or teachers shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.”).
— Signals and citation can also take the place of unnecessary sentences and phrases. Phrases like “many courts have held that …” and “Courts agree that” can be replaced by an e.g. signal. The information “In 1983, the Rhode Island Supreme Court held that …” is clear from the citation to that 1983 Supreme Court case.
— Parenthetical addicts, do not fear: there is a time and place for the use of multiple parentheticals. One such place is when you need to give multiple factual illustrations:
“Continuous” adverse possession can be shown by using seasonal property during one season only. See, e.g., Thibault v. Vartuli, 465 A.2d 248, 250 (Vt. 1983) (using island summers only for recreation); Mongomery v. Branon, 278 A.2d 744, 748 (Vt. 1971) (using hunting camp during hunting season only); Amey v. Hall, 181 A.2d 69, 73 (Vt. 1962) (using logging camp during cutting times only).
— Don’t forget about the signal “compare” and remember that the point of the comparison needs to be explained with a parenthetical:
Compare Commonwealth v. Manzanillo, 37 Mass. App. Ct. 24, 27-28 (1994) (no constructive possession where owner and driver of passenger van had no knowledge of drugs located in closed pouch behind driver’s seat and no other facts tied him to those drugs), with Commonwealth v. Sabetti, 411 Mass. 770, 778 (1992) (constructive possession inferred where driver’s ownership of vehicle was supplemented by “other incriminating evidence,” including plainly visible implements of drug use strewn about front and back seats, and drugs found on the defendant and in a bag containing his belongings).
Note that a frequent citation error is the use of “Contrast” as a signal (there is no signal “contrast” given in the Bluebook). The signal “Contra” indicates contradictory authority, but the signal “But see” is more frequently used:
Where the student speech does not take place on school grounds, school officials can rarely censor that speech. See Burch v. Barker, 861 F.2d 1149 (9th Cir. 1988) (holding that school could not require prior approval for content of student publication produced outside school grounds). But see Morse v. Frederick, 551 U.S. 393 (2007) (holding that school could censor banner waved by students on private property during school hours at event attended by students).
When used properly, signals and citations can save you time and space and provide weight and substance for your arguments. And, much like driving a five-speed car, using proper citation may seem tedious at first. But learn the basics, and citation becomes automatic.
Lisa Healy and Julie Baker are associate professors of legal writing at Suffolk University Law School in Boston. Healy can be contacted at lhealy@suffolk.edu;Baker can be reached at jbaker@suffolk.edu.
