Elements of a Citation
A legal citation can be broken down into three elements:
- A signal
- The Source or Authority
- Parenthetical Information
Generally, in non-academic documents, these citations will appear within the text of the document, unless instructed not to do so.
Citation Sentences v. Citation Clauses
Citation Sentences:
Citation sentences support the entire preceding sentence. These should start with a capital letter and end with a period like any other sentence. If there are multiple citations within the sentence, these should be separated with a semicolon.
Citation Clauses:
Citation clauses support only part of the sentence. These are offset from the text by commas immediately following the proposition that they support. These should not begin with a capital letter unless the word that begins the clause should be capitalized. If the citation clause ends the overall sentence, end the sentence with a period. If the sentence continues, offset with a comma.
