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Citing Sources or Mitigating Plagiarism: Teaching Law Students the Proper Use of Authority Attribution in the Digital Age
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 February 2019
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Learning the rules of legal citation is a challenge for new and seasoned legal researchers alike. Good instruction and practice are required to master these rules. Think about the first sport you learned to play. Did you master all the rules the first time you played the game? Do most people even read a rule book when learning to play a new sport? Initially, it is a challenge for any player learning the game to follow all of the rules correctly. Generally, only coaches study the rule book. The rules of the game are very important so coaches and players know what is and is not permitted “on the field.”
Most rules are disseminated orally and learned through practice. Law professors who teach legal research or supervise legal writing are the coaches in the game of legal citation; they must disseminate the rules to their students. The professors have a duty to stimulate a student's mastery of legal citation rules to meet the proficiency required of legal writing in the profession. Law students who do not master the rules of legal citation are more likely to plagiarize.
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References
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171 University of Hawaii at Mānoa William S. Richardson School of Law, Policy on Plagiarism, at 10. Under an exception to this rule, some legal scholars omit a citation when the idea can be found in five or more independent sources.Google Scholar
172 Bluebook R. 10, at 87-109.Google Scholar
173 Id. R. 1.2, at 54-56. When a signal is incorporated, it should be accompanied by a parenthetical describing the relevance of the source. The citation and signal combination give credence to the purpose for citing the authority.Google Scholar
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178 Bales, Richard A., Footnotes, 68 Bench & Bar Kentucky 41 (2004). Citations should not be the transition for a sentence. Test the substance of the citation.Google Scholar
179 Id.Google Scholar
180 Seligmann, Terry Jean & Seymour, Thomas H., Choosing and Using Legal Authority: The Top Ten Tips, 6 Persp. 1 (1997), reprinted in The Best of Perspectives 73 (2001).Google Scholar
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186 Rodell, Fred, Goodbye to Law Reviews, 23 Va. L. Rev. 38 (1937); Fred Rodell, Comment, Goodbye to Law Reviews—Revisited, 48 Va. L. Rev. 279 (1962); see also Jack M. Balkin, The Footnote, 1989, Faculty Scholarship Series, Paper 287 (some law students, lawyers, and legal academics believe, “footnotes are the real measure of worth in legal writing”), available at http://digitalcoomons.law.yale.edu/fss_papers/287. However, students should be aware that overusing footnotes or using textual footnotes can be distracting. Bales, supra note 178. Cramming six footnotes into one sentence may increase an academic author's footnote and tenure chances, but it is unlikely to enhance a reader's understanding of the material. Bales, supra note 178. Noel Coward, once said: “Having to read a footnote resembles having to go downstairs to answer the door while in the midst of making love.” G.W. Bowersock, The Art of the Footnote, 53 American Scholar 54, 54 (1984).Google Scholar
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192 Schiess, supra note 69, at 541; Westinghouse Elec. Corp. v. NLRB, 809 F.2d 419, 425 (7th Cir. 1987).Google Scholar
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197 Schiess, supra note 69, at 536. Pinpoint citation is also called a jump citation, dictum page, or pincite. Black's Law Dictionary 278 (9th ed. 2009).Google Scholar
198 Dickerson, Darby, Citation Frustrations—And Solutions, 30 Stetson L. Rev. 477, 507 (2000).Google Scholar
199 Association of Legal Writing Directors & Darby Dickerson, ALWD Citation Manual: A Professional System of Citation 36 (Aspen Publishers 4th ed., 2010).Google Scholar
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201 Gerhardt, supra note 76, at 16. When you fail to refer readers to specific pages where the referenced material appears, readers become frustrated. Scheiss, supra note 69, at 537. Pinpoints are valuable to anyone who reads and checks legal authority because without pinpoints, the checker's job is much more complicated. Id.Google Scholar
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226 The ALWD website shows its survey determined that 131 schools used the Bluebook exclusively, 19 schools used the ALWD exclusively, 10 both, 16 either and 8 others. ALWD Association of Legal Writing Directors website is available at (last visited Jan. 24, 2014); Gallacher, supra note 69, at 19 n.93 (in 2006, 91 schools were using the ALWD exclusively).Google Scholar
227 Lysaght & Tonner, supra note 225, at 1058. As of January 24, 2014, a total of 203 institutions are approved by the American Bar Association, ABA-Approved Law Schools, Available at http://www.americanbar.org/groups/legal_education/resources/abaapprovedlawschools (last viewed Jan. 21, 2014); Weresh, supra note 79, at 3.Google Scholar
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234 Students complain that the first year of law school is a time of major information overload. While they are expected to absorb an enormous amount of new terminology and information on substantive law, they are equally expected to consume the very new and complex nature of legal citation, a foreign language all its own. Lysaght & Tonner, supra note 225. Legal citation can be a very frustrating process for the student and professor. Gerhardt, supra note 76. Another frustration for practicing lawyers is that the examples in the text use law-review typeface conventions rather than practitioner typeface conventions. Schiess, supra note 69, at 537. However, mastering the Bluebook is a manageable and attainable goal. And although mastering the Bluebook is confusing, having no “uniform system” of citation would indeed be worse. Barris, supra note 230, at 3. Robert Berring notes, “The Uniform System of Citation has inflicted more pain on more law students than any other publication in legal history.” Weresh, supra note 79 (quoting The Bluebook: a Sixty-Five Year Retrospective Vol. 2, app. A, 6 (1998)). Ultimately, you will be able to write most but not all citations without use of this manual. Some sources will drive even the most experienced legal writer back to the pages of the Bluebook or local citation guides. Martin, supra note 222. That is why the Bluebook is ultimately so useful because it provides a system so that everyone's citations are similar. Barris, supra note 230, at 3.Google Scholar
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260 LexisNexis Research Help, http://web.lexis.com/help/research/gh_brief-check.asp (last visited May 10, 2014).Google Scholar
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