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Bluebook Guide: Books & More

This guide introduces the Bluebook's uniform system of legal citation.

Basic Elements

The Whitepages cover citations for books, reports, and other nonperiodic materials.  See R15, pp. 147-56.  There are some examples on The Bluebook's Quick Style Guide.  The main elements for these types of citations include:  

  • Author (large and small caps)
  • Title (large and small caps)
  • Page, section, or paragraph cited
  • Editor or translator
  • Edition
  • Date

The main elements for these citations slightly differ in the Bluepages (see B15, pp. 22-23) and include:

  • The volume number (for multi-volume sets)
  • The full name(s) of the author(s) as written in the publication
  • The title of the publication (underscored or italicized)
  • A pinpoint citation
  • A parenthetical indicating the year of publication, the name of the editor (if any), and the edition (if more than one)

Basic Citation Examples