Perspectives, Author Guide and Stylesheet–Legal Information–West
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Author's Guide and Style Sheet (2008-2009)

AUTHOR'S GUIDE

Submissions
Manuscripts may be submitted in hard copy or via e-mail as an attachment to:
Mary A. Hotchkiss, Editor
University of Washington School of Law
William H. Gates Hall
Box 353020
Seattle, WA 98195-3020
(206) 616-9333
Fax (206) 543-5671
E-mail: hotchma@u.washington.edu
Please retain a copy of the manuscript in case of loss in the mail. Include a cover letter indicating your name, address, telephone number, and e-mail address if available.
All articles are subject to editing in the discretion of the editor and editorial staff of Perspectives.
All articles are subject to the following policy on photocopying for educational use, which is published in each issue of Perspectives:
Except as otherwise expressly provided, the author of each article in this issue has granted permission for copies of that article to be made for educational use, provided that (1) copies are distributed at or below cost, (2) the author and journal are identified, (3) proper notice of copyright is affixed to each copy, and (4) the editor of Perspectives is notified of the use.
Manuscript Form Length
Typed in standard face double-spaced text, 1.5 inch margins. Articles of any length will be considered for publication but the preferred submission will fall between 5 and 15 typewritten, double-spaced pages. Long articles may be shortened to conform to available space.
Author Info.
A brief biographical statement should be attached, including name, professional title, and institutional affiliation; this statement should be included after the title of the article and preceding the text.
Notes
Use footnotes, not endnotes; identify notes in the text by superscript numbers. Except where otherwise indicated by the following Style Sheet, footnote citations should follow rules of The Bluebook (18th ed. 2005).
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STYLE SHEET
In General
Except where otherwise indicated in this Style Sheet, Perspectives generally follows the latest edition of the Chicago Manual of Style. An informal prose style is preferable to a dense, law review or academic journal style. Avoid colloquial usage, excessive jargon, and sexist terms.
Comma in series
In a series consisting of three or more elements, the elements are separated by commas. When a conjunction joins the last two elements in a series, a comma is used before the conjunction, e.g., Attending the conference were Boxx, Smith, and Jones.
Do not use a comma to separate Jr. or Sr. from the name, e.g., John Kennedy Jr.
Ellipses
In general, treat an ellipsis as a three-letter word, constructed with three periods and two spaces, e.g., Opinions expressed ... should not be attributed to ... West.
When deleting material from the end of a sentence, include a period immediately following the last word, followed by a space and three periods, e.g., Opinions expressed in articles will be those of the author. ...
Headings
Prepositions in headings should be lowercase unless they contain five or more letters.
Numbers
Spell out zero through nine; use numerals for 10 and above. Very large numbers can be expressed in numerals followed by million, billion, etc.: 2.3 million; 7 billion.
Publications
When referring to a publication in the text or in a footnote citation, use the following styles depending on the nature of the publication:
  • Book Title: title is italicized and upper and lower case (e.g., Frank Houdek is the author of the AALL Reference Book.)
  • Journal Title: title is italicized and upper and lower case (e.g., Frank Houdek is the editor of Law Library Journal.
  • Journal Article: article title is italicized; journal title is not italicized, upper and lower case, and, for citation purposes, abbreviated according to Bluebook table 13 (e.g., Erik M. Jensen, The Shortest Article in Law Review History, 50 J. Legal Educ. 156 (2000).)
Word Preferences and Usage
  • Use appendixes or indexes, not appendices or indices
  • Use citation, not cite
  • When referring to the Bluebook, do not use the term Bluebooking
  • Legal writing: leave open as a noun (e.g., he teaches legal writing) or as an adjective (e.g., a legal writing course)
  • Online: do not hyphenate, use as one word
  • Database: do not hyphenate, use as one word
  • Use LexisNexis and Westlaw
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All articles copyrighted West (a Thomson Reuters business), except where otherwise expressly indicated. Except as otherwise expressly provided, the author of each article in this issue has granted permission for copies of that article to be made for educational use, provided that (1) copies are distributed at or below cost, (2) author and journal are identified, (3) proper notice of copyright is affixed to each copy, and (4) the editor of Perspectives is notified of the use. For articles in which it holds copyright, West grants permission for copies to be made for educational use under the same conditions.