Melanie Kalmanson is a commercial litigation attorney and former Florida Supreme Court law clerk. She is the author of the Bluebook Wednesday Tips Newsletter. Click here to subscribe to Melanie’s newsletter.
Bluebook Tip #9: Parentheticals
Parentheticals – Rule 1.5
Parentheticals are a way to add information to your citation.
For instance, you can use parentheticals to:
- Explain the relevance of your cite to your writing
- Add a quote from the source
- Indicate you’ve emphasized something in a direct quote
- Indicate you’ve removed a citation from a direct quote
(alteration in original)
This parenthetical is used when your direct quote has an alteration (brackets, ellipses, etc.) that appeared in the source.
Note: This is not used to indicate emphasis in the source.
Improper Parenthetical: Per a prior Bluebook Wednesday discussion, note that (alteration in original) is a proper parenthetical, but (emphasis in original) is not.
Rule 5.2(d)(iii): “Do not indicate that emphasis in the quotation appears in the original.”
(emphasis added)
This parenthetical is used when you add emphasis to a direct quote that did not appear in the source.
(footnote omitted)
This parenthetical is used when you omit a footnote(s) from quoted material. This is not used when a footnote appears at the end of quoted material that is not included.
Example:
“The pencil is sharp.* I sharpened it myself.”
“The pencil is sharp. I sharpened it myself. *”
You would only use (footnote omitted) to omit the asterisk footnote in the first example.
Rule 5.2(d)(ii)
(citation omitted)
Similar to (footnote omitted), this parenthetical is used when you omit a cite(s) from quoted material. This is not used when a cite appears at the end of quoted material that is not included. Then you would use the (citing) parenthetical.
Rule 5.2(d)(ii)
(quoting)
This parenthetical is used to show when the source quotes another source. Use the same format you otherwise would for the citation to the quoted source.
Rule 5.2(e)
(citing)
Similarly, this parenthetical is used to show when the source cites another source. Use the same format you otherwise would for the citation to the cited source.
(explanation)
One of the most common uses for parentheticals is to add information to the citation.
Rule 1.5(a)
The most common way this is done is to begin your parenthetical with a present participial phrase (i.e., a phrase starting with a verb ending in -ing). These phrases do not start with a capital letter.
Example: (affirming the trial court’s final judgment)
Rule 1.5(a)(i)
You can also include a direct quote in the parenthetical, either a full sentence or incomplete sentence. All of the rules for direct quotes still apply. See Tips #4–7.
Rule 1.5(a)(i)(ii)
Order of Parentheticals
Rule 1.2(b) shows the correct order of parentheticals.
The explanation of parentheticals in this article are in the proper order.
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