Scrivener for Law Review

Hi FUM24, and welcome to the forum.

My spouse is a part-time law student, so I’ve seen some of the Bluebooking questions up close. As suavito and rms note, there isn’t a template with Bluebooking requirements ready-made for Scrivener, from what I’ve found.

My recommendation is that you start with Scrivener’s blank project template and add documents for each part of your article as needed.

For citations, we have this wiki page on the forum that provides an overview of using Scrivener with reference software. That article will give you some insights into how different citation management tools might work.

From what I’ve seen on websites like this one from the U of Washington’s law school, only some reference management programs will support the Bluebooking formatting.

If I were choosing one from this list, I’d likely go with Endnotes since it’s available for both Windows and Mac. It’s the more expensive option, but your university might include access to it with the other software you can access with your student ID.

And, if you expect that the work you’re doing on this journal might carry over to summer internships or to your first few years as an associate or law clerk, having your references from this journal article in those roles could be useful.

You might also see if anyone on the journal is already using Scrivener and has tips for you. I’d really like to see it adopted more widely in law schools because I think it’s well suited to building exam prep outlines and writing the papers for those writing intensive classes the ABA requires.

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