Before using any style manual, determine which style manual was assigned for your class.  For example, when citing legal documents such as the Congressional Record, international legal documents, the transcript of a hearing, etc., your professor may want you to use one of these style manuals:

1. The Bluebook or

2. the U.S. Government Publishing Office Style Manual or

3. the ALWD Guide to Legal Citation

If your professor requires the use of The Bluebook and you are not familiar with it, you may want to read the preface, table of content and index as it will be helpful in understanding the complexities of legal citation in different contexts, i.e., law journals, legislative materials, administrative materials, international legal documents, briefs, etc.

The Bender AU Library has The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation in hardcopy, click here to find it: https://www.american.edu/library/.   We currently do not have this resource available online, but The Bluebook offers a free trial for its online version that you may find useful: https://www.legalbluebook.com/sign-up.

For further assistance click here: https://www.american.edu/library/ and navigate to “Ask A Librarian.”