One space appears to be more correct, is widely used, and required by all of the major style guides including the government printing office style guide and the chicago style manual both of which the blue book point to when its silent. Effective punctuation handout 1 columbia law school. However, the basic format of a case citation is as follows. But for most kinds of writing, the two space habit is, in fact, no longer the rule. I find it somewhat irritating that one is so irritated by two spaces after a period. These include a normal word space as between the words in a sentence, a single enlarged space, and two full spaces.
Pages, paragraphs, and pincites bluebook legal citation. A period piece by jay shepherd my overlords here at atl thought it would be fun to run a poll about whether there should be one space or two after a. Ex dont announce regretfully much less resentfully that it looks as if your time has run out. When i was, i learned to type on a machine called the typewriter i dont think you can even buy one these days. Citing cases bluebook guide guides at georgetown law. In endnotes, citation sentences begin one space after a textual proposition. The majority of style guides that use a latinderived alphabet as a language base now prescribe or recommend the use of a single space after the concluding punctuation of a sentence. Standard word spaces were about onethird of an em space, but sentences were to be divided by a full em space.
This is a variable space that is normally wider than an interword space. Learn vocabulary, terms, and more with flashcards, games, and other study tools. Insert ellipsis after the period slightly different than before. Ftr, i am 100% on team one space, and if you say two spaces, youre simply wrong. Difficulty generally arises only when the period is used with other punctuation marks. If you were using a typewriter a real one, from the early cretaceous period, that just hammers out what you type, with no intelligence at all. Sentence spacing guidance is provided in many language and style guides. The bluebook uniform system of citation has been in the news a lot lately, especially after carl malamud and public resource published the open source and freely available baby blues manual of legal citation. Use two section symbols in a row to indicate more than one section is being cited. May 11, 2018 one thing that apparently still has the power to infuriate people, though, is how many spaces should be used after a period at the end of an english sentence. Lawyers are sharply divided on spacing between sentences when writing a paper. In typeset matter, one space, not two, should be used between two sentenceswhether the first ends in a period, a question mark, an exclamation point, or a closing quotation mark or parenthesis. It states, in text, use only a single word space after all sentence punctuation. The bluebook uses two methods of abbreviating words.
Published work these days rarely features two spaces after a period. When did cmos first recommend one space instead of two after periods and colons. A volume has two issues with the first containing pages 1 to 180 and the second issue containing pages 181 to 370. But if you begin a new sentence after a citation, that new sentence will be two spaces after the citation.
Generations of law students, lawyers, scholars, judges, and other legal professionals have relied on the bluebook s unique system of citation in their writing. And while cmos recommends that only one space be used after a period in a published work, our editorial board used two. Use four dotsa period plus three ellipsis dotswhen youve omitted material after a full sentence but the quotation continues. This on its own is confusing, but then when you consider whether the last period of the ellipsis is followed by a single or double space you can easily begin to have nightmares. When citing an article in the volume, give the page number but not the issue number. One thing that apparently still has the power to infuriate people, though, is how many spaces should be used after a period at the end of an.
And many people were taught to use that extra space in typing class. May 08, 2015 the story of spaces after periods is often told as though monospaced typewriter fonts needed two spaces after a sentence for good readability, and that the wide availability of proportional fonts on computers led to the switch to one space. At least one source disputes this account, on the authority of capt. It seems that in addition to the normal seven character ellipsis the bluebook also has specific rules for the eight character ellipsis and the nine character ellipsis. The bluebook also has citation rules for legal memoranda and other practiceoriented materials the blue pages, which students in lrwa2 use for their memo assignments.
Since the publishing industry prefers a single space. The precise format of a case citation depends on a number of factors, including the jurisdiction, court, and type of case. In a diverse and rapidly changing legal profession, the bluebook continues to provide a systematic method by which members of the profession communicate important information to one another about the sources and legal. Should you put one or two spaces after a period between. The following information regarding the bluebook citation format is an adapted version of the style and formatting guidelines found in the bluebook, 20th ed. In monospaced fonts, the letters are all the same width, so an i is the same width as an m, but in. If a sentence otherwise ends with a question mark or exclamation point, the period is omitted. When you elide a portion that runs until the end of a sentence, include the punctuation at the end of the sentence. Citing to the record in briefs marquette university law. For illustration purposes in this blog ill use to indicate a nonbreaking space. Your newfound confidence in your bluebooking expertise will serve you. Indicate omissions in quotations with an ellipsis composed of three periods. Contra is used whenever the cited authority directly states a contradictory proposition and so is essentially the contradictory form of no signal. People began inserting two spaces after the period during the era of the typewriter.
With the arrival of the typewriter in the late 19th century, style guides for writers began diverging from printers manuals, indicating that. The story of spaces after periods is often told as though monospaced typewriter fonts needed two spaces after a sentence for good readability. A note to teachers and parents we at want to help make teaching english grammar and punctuation less stressful during this potentially difficult period when many students are sheltering in place and schools are closed due. People belong to one camp or the other, and both camps are very passionate about their stances. Sentence spacing is the space between sentences in typeset text. Actually academia and law style books dont require two spaces. If you have check grammar as you type enabled, i think this will cause instances of a single space after a period to be marked with a wavy green underline.
Tex typesets an intersentence space after a period unless the period follows a capital letter as in initials or it is instructed otherwise. I too am among the old typewriter generation and two spaces is something i do automatically. Blue pages this guide covers the bluebook s white pages, which provide citation rules for academic papers. The bad news is that one em space is bigger than two.
The good news is the court doesnt use two spaces after a period. Perhaps for this reason, some style manuals notably the bluebook and the gpo. Years after the original incidents, a retired amcassigned officer now deceased claimed that project sign prepared two drafts of the estimate. Debate about two spaces after a period in legal writing. Bluebook, the legal style manual, doesnt have a rule on space after. Its customary to use at with appellate record cites, but the 19th edition does not require at with other page number references in record cites. May 01, 2018 when readers did linger on the area of texts with two spaces after a period, it was for a shorter period of time than they tended to linger on areas of texts with one space after the period. You will gain an indepth understanding of the bluebook. I found the onespace rule in the 15th edition, but i remember hearing. Hopefully, we are communicating with others who speak our citation language. Since the introduction of movabletype printing in europe, various sentence spacing conventions have been used in languages with a latin alphabet. Do not place a space before a period at the end of a fully quoted sentence. A period piece by jay shepherd my overlords here at atl thought it would be fun to run a poll about whether there should be one space or two after a period. Otherwise, youll just get a notice when you explicitly run a spelling and grammar check you must have check grammar with spelling enabled.
In a diverse and rapidly changing legal profession, the bluebook continues to provide a systematic method by which members of the profession communicate important information to one another about the sources and legal authorities upon. Infra refers to material that appears later in the document, but never for. Two spaces after a period may be better than one the. Mla and chicago manual of style, as well as ap, use one space. Double spacing after a period could reveal your age. Nothing says over 40 like two spaces after a period.
Typing two blank spaces at the end of every sentence is one such habit. Bluebook, the legal style manual, doesnt have a rule on space after periods, but defers to the chicago manual one space. In 1966 the condon committee under the direction of dr. Page numbers are typically cited following the name of a work and before a date parenthetical. Students unable to complete graded assignments after a two week period as approved by the medical director, may be required to switch to passfail in one or more courses, drop one or more courses. In a unanimous decision, justice holmes wrote, the question in every case is whether the words used are used in such circumstances and are of such a nature as to create a clear and present danger that they will bring about the substantive evils that congress. Ellipses include a space between each period and are set off by a space before the first and after the last period. Therefore, most of us who do this i have taught myself to stop putting two spaces after a period and it was hard are over 50 years of age. Justin wolfers, a professor of economics and public policy at university of michigan, tweeted in reference to the study. Aug 12, 2011 and while cmos recommends that only one space be used after a period in a published work, our editorial board used two.
Use one space after a period at the end of a sentence unless an instructor or publisher dictates otherwise. Historical style guides before the 20th century typically indicated that wider spaces were. Note that there is a space between the two parentheticals, as indicated in the following example. Aug 01, 2019 generally, citation rules are all a bit weird since the aim is to represent a resource in as small a space as possible. Use a dash between the beginning and ending section numbers. But see is used when the citation clearly supports a proposition contradictory to the textual assertion, and. Historical style guides before the 20th century typically indicated that wider spaces were to be used between sentences. Aug 25, 2011 this on its own is confusing, but then when you consider whether the last period of the ellipsis is followed by a single or double space you can easily begin to have nightmares. In the era when type was set by hand, it was common to use extra space sometimes quite a bit of it after periods, a practice that continued into the first half of the twentieth century. No longer will you hesitate when trying to remember how to abbreviate case names, when there is a space after a period in a citation versus when there is not, or when it is proper to use see as a signal. For example, one might write that a computer user should press the f key, rather than press the f key.
Generations of law students, lawyers, scholars, judges, and other legal professionals have relied on the bluebooks unique system of citation in their writing. Block quotation format is optional when the quotation appears in a footnote in your document. Also, changing all the elipses created by word into three periods with spaces between them. Judges look for these when decided which brief is more legally sound. Also, reformatting an article so that there are two spaces rather than one after a period. Sentence spacing in language and style guides wikipedia. The two spaces after period rule was established during the days of typesetters, when additional space was needed to show the difference between the spacing between words which was smaller and the spacing between sentences which was larger.
And they, in turn, pass the rule along to the next generation of writers. Use quotation marks around linguistic examples rather than highlighting these examples with italics. Mar 17, 2015 you will gain an indepth understanding of the bluebook. Grammar and punctuation the blue book of grammar and. But the standard now is one and it matters because youre making extra work for an editor when you use two, also, with todays fonts and spacing, it can create rivers of empty white space on the page. Some of the most obscure bluebook rules or how to really. Chicago style manual both of which the blue book point to when its silent. This website and the blue book of grammar and punctuation represent american english rules and guidelines. Do not put a space between the two symbols see examples above.
It turns out that whether you use one space or two may depend upon your age. Over the years, i have heard that this has been used as. Students unable to complete graded assignments after a twoweek period as approved by the medical director, may be required to switch to passfail in one or. Many lawyers are sharply divided on this issue, with opinions often breaking along generational lines based on when the lawyer originally learned how to type. Apparently, requiring two spaces after a period is a timehonored mistake. The space needed after these punctuation marks is proportioned automatically. Presented by the academic achievement program october. Science can blow your mind sometimes, and this time it has come down on the side of two spaces after a period. Lets set aside whether one space or two spaces is right. The contraction technique takes the first three letters of a word plus the last letter.
Bluebook citation for llm students bluebook citation for. Mar 18, 2020 use two section symbols in a row to indicate more than one section is being cited. When readers did linger on the area of texts with two spaces after a period, it was for a shorter period of time than they tended to linger on areas of texts with one space. One thing that apparently still has the power to infuriate people, though, is how many spaces should be used after a period at the end of an english sentence. Any word over eight letters may also be abbreviated if substantial space is saved and the result is clear. The chicago manual of style, the us government printing office style manual, and the ap stylebook are just a few of the style guides that recommend one space after a period. Oxford comma writers disagree on whether lists of three or more should include a comma before the and or or and the last item in the list.
Chicago advises leaving a single character space, not two spaces, between sentences. Sometime people still teach it because thats what theyre used to. Aug 12, 2014 actually academia and law style books dont require two spaces. Some prefer two spaces and some prefer one space after a period. Lots of people still do it because it used to be a rule, and thats how they were taught. We needed that extra space between sentences to make it easier to see. Blue pages this guide covers the bluebooks white pages, which provide citation rules for academic papers. The period is perhaps the easiest punctuation mark to master. An apostrophe is used before the last letter but no period.
With a computer, use only one space following periods, commas, semicolons, colons, exclamation points, question marks, and quotation marks. Microsoft word in the april 2020 update will highlight two spaces after a period as an error, and offer a correction of one space. How do i default to 2 spaces after a period in word. Citation practices and the bluebook cuny school of law. Jun 25, 2019 lawyers who like to get worked up over unimportant issues often grow contentious in their opinions over whether to put one space or two spaces after the period in legal documents. Ruppelt, who tells it in his memoir of his project blue book years, the report on unidentified flying objects 1956. The bluebook is not comprehensive for citing laws everywhere. If the case is a consolidation of two or more actions, cite only the first one listed rule 10. Lawyers who like to get worked up over unimportant issues often grow contentious in their opinions over whether to put one space or two spaces after the period in legal documents.
For the most part, when one begins to cite uncommon resources or laws that are far. Supra refers to material that has already appeared in the document and it has its own rule at 4. Nicholas christakis, a professor at yale university. According to the bluebook, include a space before and after each period in.
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