This page provides links and step-by-step instructions on citation practice exercises provided through LexisNexis and Procertas. This assessments are intended to clarify and sharpen citation skills as it relates to The Bluebook.
As mentioned above, The Bluebook can often be intimidating for new users, but the more you practice the skill, the easier legal citation will become.
If you want to practice, LexisNexis provides students with a Citation Workstation in your LexisNexis account.
First, sign into your LexisNexis account.
From the homepage, look to the right hand side of the screen, below the search bar, where it says "Tools & Resources". There should be a link titled "Interactive Citation Workstation".
Once you are in the Interactive Citation Workstation, on the left hand side is a menu. Clicking on "Student Exercises" will provide a list of citation styles you can choose from for practice.
Click "Bluebook" in order to get to the Bluebook Exercises.
There are 21 different Bluebook exercises, and each exercises focuses on a certain source type or format. With the intent of each exercise being to deepen the user's understanding of that type of Bluebook citation.
The Procertas Legal Technology Assessment (LTA) is a series of training modules and assessments designed to help legal professionals become more proficient at using Microsoft PowerPoint, Excel, Word, and Adobe Acrobat. For each task there is a demonstration video, a practice task, and then a separate assessment. The Law Library provides access to the LTA for all Loyola Law students, faculty and staff. Individual login credentials are required to access Procertas. Contact Joe Mitzenmacher, Reference and Electronic Services Librarian (jmitze1@luc.edu or ext. 5-6844) to set up your own account.
Bluebook module 1 offers basic training on how to cite most commonly-used legal resources. It includes tutorials and assessments on common tasks like citing cases (both long-form and short form citations) and citing secondary sources including books, journals and newspapers.
Bluebook module 2 offers a series of tutorials and assessments on more in-depth tasks more closely associated with scholarly writing for law journal students. These tasks include more advanced case citation techniques like citation sentences and parenthetical information. The module also includes a more in-depth review of citing more difficult periodical material.
Bluebook module 3 will test your ability to correct citations that do not currently conform to The Bluebook, which you should have at hand. You will download a document (using the Download button) that contains almost conformant citations, which you will need to fix. When you are done, upload the document (using the Upload button) for grading.
