How to quote: ellipses, brackets and block quotes

An ellipsis shows that you left words out of a quotation. Write it as three periods with a space between each and a space on either side: . . . (Rule 5.3). Word's autocorrect turns three typed periods into the single … character, and neither that character nor three periods run together (...) is the Bluebook's form.

Words cut from the middle of a sentence take three periods. If you quote a sentence as a full sentence but cut its end, add the sentence's own period after the ellipsis, for four in all: unsafe . . . . If you leave out material after a complete sentence, keep that sentence's period and then the ellipsis: burden. . . .

Never open a quotation with an ellipsis; start at the first word you quote. If that word now begins a sentence, capitalize it in brackets: “[T]he tenant need not pay rent.” When the quoted words are only a phrase in your own sentence, leave the ellipsis off both ends.

• “must repair any defect … that makes the unit unsafe.”“must repair any defect . . . that makes the unit unsafe.”Three spaced periods, never the single … character. R 5.3
• “any defect...that makes the unit unsafe”“any defect . . . that makes the unit unsafe”A space between the periods and on both sides. R 5.3
• The court stressed: “. . . the tenant need not pay rent for an unsafe unit.”The court stressed: “[T]he tenant need not pay rent for an unsafe unit.”Don't open with an ellipsis; bracket the new capital. R 5.3

Put anything you change inside a quotation in square brackets (Rule 5.2(a)): a letter whose case you changed, as in [a] for A, or a word you substituted so the quotation fits your sentence. A mistake that was in the original stays, followed by [sic].

Other changes are noted in a parenthetical after the citation: (emphasis added) when you italicize words for emphasis, (alteration in original) when the brackets were already in the source, and (citation omitted), (citations omitted) or (footnote omitted) when you drop them from inside the passage.

If the passage you quote itself quotes another source, keep those inner quotation marks, as single marks inside your double ones, and name the source in a parenthetical: (quoting Tamsin v. Ure, 88 F.4th 301, 309 (6th Cir. 2023)). Use one set of marks only when the whole passage you quote is that inner quotation. You will still see (internal quotation marks omitted) in opinions, though Rule 5.2 no longer lists it.

When you need more than one note, your own changes come first, then the source you quote: (emphasis added) (quoting …) (Rule 1.5(b)).

• The court held that “a landlord must repair any defect.”The court held that “[a] landlord must repair any defect.”The opinion has a capital A, so bracket the change. R 5.2(a)
• Halvard v. Pemberly, 77 F.4th 512, 518 (8th Cir. 2023) (emphasis mine).Halvard v. Pemberly, 77 F.4th 512, 518 (8th Cir. 2023) (emphasis added).Added emphasis is always (emphasis added). R 5.2(d)
• … (8th Cir. 2023) (quoting Tamsin v. Ure, 88 F.4th 301, 309 (6th Cir. 2023)) (emphasis added).… (8th Cir. 2023) (emphasis added) (quoting Tamsin v. Ure, 88 F.4th 301, 309 (6th Cir. 2023)).Notes on your own changes come before quoting. R 1.5(b)

The 22nd edition gives memos and briefs a shortcut (Bluepages B5.3). To make a quotation easier to read, you may drop inner quotation marks, brackets, ellipses, embedded citations and footnote numbers, change capitalization without brackets, and leave out the sources of quotations inside the quotation. One (citation modified) then notes all of it.

It replaces the unofficial (cleaned up), which the 22nd edition advises against. It covers only readability changes: emphasis you add still needs (emphasis added). In a law review footnote, ask your journal before using it; until it says yes, mark each change the ordinary way, with brackets, ellipses, inner quotation marks and (quoting …), and (citations omitted) or (footnote omitted).

• Halvard v. Pemberly, 77 F.4th 512, 518 (8th Cir. 2023) (cleaned up).Halvard v. Pemberly, 77 F.4th 512, 518 (8th Cir. 2023) (citation modified).In a memo or brief, the 22nd edition's note for readability changes. B5.3

Commas and periods go inside the closing quotation mark, even when the original had none there (Rule 5.1(b)). Question marks, exclamation points, colons and semicolons go inside only when they belong to the quotation; otherwise they go outside.

• The lease required “reasonable notice”.The lease required “reasonable notice.”Periods go inside the closing mark. R 5.1(b)
• The term “holder”, which the statute never defines, is read broadly.The term “holder,” which the statute never defines, is read broadly.Commas go inside too. R 5.1(b)
• Did the court really call the clause “unconscionable?”Did the court really call the clause “unconscionable”?The question is yours, not the court's. R 5.1(b)

A quotation of fifty words or more is set off as a block: indented on both sides, single-spaced, with no quotation marks around it (Rule 5.1(a)). Inside the block, keep any quotation marks exactly as the original has them. In a memo or brief, the citation goes on the line after the block, at the left margin.

Ellipsis periods are not words, so trimming a quotation below fifty words with an ellipsis keeps it in your sentence, as long as the cut doesn't change its meaning. Law reviews keep a quotation inside an explanatory parenthetical in quotation marks however long it runs.