Legal Research and Writing

1. Take time to read through a majority of the Bluebook. This will help you understand the basic format and where to find the rules in order to create a correct citation 
2. Utilize the Quick Reference: Law Review Footnotes table found on the front inside cover of the Bluebook. This will help you identify the correct rule to reference and make the process of citation a quick one. WARNING:  the citations are for illustration purposes only and do not cover the meticulous rules themselves. ALWAYS review the relevant rules in their entirety. 
3. Use the index at the back of the Bluebook when you begin to search for applicable rules. Use it for most if not every source you are cite checking.  The Index provides useful cross-references and will help you learn the categories of citations. 

Tabbing your bluebook can be very helpful when taking the bluebook exam, or even when citing a source for a memo, appellate brief or law review paper. 

Overview of the Bluebook

• Practitioners’ Notes (Blue Pages) – These rules are for the “everyday citation needs." For legal research and writing, you will ignore these pages, and focus on the next three sections. These blue pages will be used for law review. 
• Rules of Citation and Style (R.1 – R.9) – These rules cover formatting do’s and don’ts as well as general structure.
• Specific Citation Rules (R.10 – R.21) – These rules are comprised of citation formats for particular sources such as cases, statutes, and law reviews.
• Tables and Abbreviations (T.1 – T.16) – This section contains lists and lists of abbreviations for terms that can appear in your citation.

 List of tab

• Signals
• Introductory Signals (R. 1.2) pp 58.
• Order of Signals (R. 1.3) pp 60. 
• Order of Authorities (R 1.4) pp 61. 
• Subdivisions (R. 3) pp 71. 
• Short Citation Forms
• "Id" (R. 4.1) pp 78
• "Supra" (R 4.2) pp 80. 
• Quotations (R. 5) pp 82
• Abbreviations, numerals and symbols (R. 6) pp 87.
• Italicization (R. 7) pp 90. 
• Capitalization (R. 8) pp 91.
• Cases 
• Case Name (R. 10.2) pp 96.
• Reporters (R. 10.3) pp 102.
• Court and Jurisdiction (R. 10.4) pp 104.
• Date and Year (R. 10.5) pp 106.
• Parenthetical (R. 10.6) pp 107.
• Subsequent History (R. 10.7) pp 109.
• Unreported Cases (R. 10.8) pp 111. 
• Short Form (R. 10.9) pp 115.
• Constitutions (R. 11) pp 118. 
• Statutes 
• Basic Form (R. 12.1) pp 120. 
• General Rule (R. 12.2) pp 121.
• Current and Unofficial Codes (R. 12.3) pp 123.
• Session Laws (R. 12.4) pp 125.
• Electronic Statues (R. 12.5) pp 126. 
• Special Citation Forms (R. 12.9) pp 129. 
• Short Form (R. 12.10) pp 133.
• Legislative Materials
•  Bills and Resolutions (R. 13.2) pp 136. 
• Electronic Legislative Materials (R. 13.7) pp 140. 
• Short Forms (R. 13.8) pp 141. 
• Administrative and Executive Materials 
• Rule and Regulations (R. 14.2) pp 143.
• Short Forms for Regulations (R. 14.5) pp 147.
• Books, Reports, and Other Non-periodical Materials
• Author (R. 15.1) pp 149.
• Editor or Translator (R. 15.2) pp 151.
• Title (R. 15.3) pp 151.
• Edition, Publisher, Date (R. 15.4) pp 152
• Special Citation Forms (R 15.8) pp 155.
• Electronic (R. 15.9) pp 156.
• Periodic Materials
• Author (R. 16.2) pp 161.
• Title (R. 16.3) pp 161.
• Newspapers (R. 16.6) pp 163.
• Special Citation Forms (R. 16.7) pp 165.
• Electronic (R. 16.8) pp 169.
• Short Forms (R. 16.9) pp 170.
• Unpublished and forthcoming source (R. 17) pp 172. 
• Internet and Electronic Media (R. 18) pp 178. 
• Foreign Material (R. 20) pp 193) 
• International Material (R. 21) pp 200. 
• United States Jurisdiction (T1) pp 233. 
• Foreign Jurisdictions (T2) pp 307. 
• Intergovernmental Organizations (T3) pp 491. 
• Treaty Sources (T4) pp 494. 
• Arbitral Reporters (T5) pp 495. 
• Abbreviate case names (T6) pp 496. 
• Court Names (T7) pp 498.
• Geographical Terms (T10) pp 502.
• Months (T12) pp 510.
• Periodicals (T13) pp 510.

Tips:

1. Tab your bluebook before the exam, this will help you get to know your bluebook and you will become more familiar with the sections and tables. 
2. The amount of tabs is up to you. If the you just want to tab the rules, do that. If you want to also tab the subsections, list, and bluepages, do that. Do whatever you feel comfortable with. 
3. Use the large tabs, the small one end up falling off and are harder to read, which defeats the purpose of having your bluebook tabbed if you have to bring a magnifying glass into the exam with you. 
4. If all other sources fail, always go to your writing fellow, they may not give you the answer but they will give you the steps and right tools to find the answer. 

Adapted from Georgetown Law Library

These are some examples of bluebook citation.

WARNING: the citation may be different based on the rule. 

Cases:

Jackson v. Metro. Edison Co., 348 F. Supp. 954, 956-58 (M.D. Pa. 1972). 

Constitutions:

N.M. Const. art. IV, § 7. 

Statutes: 

S.C. Ann. Code § 27-35-560

Legislative Materials:

Privacy Protection act of 1998, H.R. 3224, 105th Cong. § 2(a) (1998). 

Letters:

Letter from Pierre Arsenault, Exec. Editor, Harvard Law Review, to Bryan M. Killian, Supreme Court Chair, Harvard Law Review (Apr. 2, 2004) (on file with the Harvard Law School Library). 

Interviews: 

Telephone Interview with Michael Leiter, President, Harvard Law Review (Oct. 22, 1999). 

Books:

Charles Dickens, Bleak House 49-55 (Norman Page ed., Penguin Books 1971) (1853). 

Works In Collection:

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Law in Science and Science in Law, in Collected Legal Papers 210, 210 (1920).

Periodical Materials:

Thomas R. McCoy & Barry Friedman, Conditional Spending: Federalism;s Trojan Horse, 1988 Sup. Ct. Rev. 85, 100. 

Newspaper: 

Andrew Rosenthal, White House Tutors Kremlin in How a Presidency Works, N.Y. Times, June 15, 1990, at A1. 

Internet

Erice Posner, More on Section 7 of the Tourtue Convention, Volokh Conspiracy (Jan. 29, 2009,  10:04 AM), http://www.volokh.com/posts/123324158.shtml. 

Treaties

Geneva Convention Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War art. 3, Aug, 12, 1949, 6 U.S.T. 3316, 75 U.N.T.S. 135.  

Examples from Bluebook.