For first-year law students

Master the blue pages of the Bluebook.

A patient walk through the citation rules you actually use in your first year — citation sentences, signals, parentheticals, case citations, short forms, and North Carolina specifics. Read a lesson, try a problem, then check yourself.

Three ways in

Pick where you'd like to start.

The lessons explain the why behind each rule. The practice set lets you drill one topic at a time. The assessments mix everything together, the way an exam will.

What's covered

Every rule on the syllabus, none of the ones that aren't.

We focus on the blue pages a 1L actually uses — plus the two tables you'll keep flipping back to.

Citation mechanics

  • B1.1 · Citation sentences and clauses
  • B1.2 · Introductory signals
  • B1.3 · Explanatory parentheticals
  • B5.3 · Modifying quotations & citations

Case citations

  • B10.1 · Full case citation
  • B10.1.1 · Case names
  • B10.1.2 · Reporters & pinpoint pages
  • B10.1.3 · Court & year
  • B10.2 · Short-form citation

Tables you'll use

  • T1 · North Carolina: N.C., N.C. Ct. App., N.C. Gen. Stat.
  • T6 · Case-name & institutional-author abbreviations
A note on the Bluebook

The Bluebook can feel like a wall. It isn't, once you see what each part of a citation is doing. Start with one lesson — give yourself fifteen minutes — and the rest will get easier.

Open lesson 1 Or skip to practice