Citation Form in Transition: The ALWD Citation Manual

In 1997, the Association of Legal Writing Directors embarked on a project to write a new citation manual. The aim was to create a citation manual that, without making radical changes to the standard system, would simplify it and make it more consistent. The new manual would take the terror out of learning citation form-and, not incidentally, would take the terror out of teaching citation form-by presenting citation rules in an easily understood format. The ALWD Citation Manual: A Professional System of Citation is the happy result of that ambitious project. As indicated in the preface to the ALWD Manual: "The Association of Legal Writing Directors created the ALWD Citation Manual because lawyers, judges, law teachers, and law students need a citation manual that is easy to use, easy to teach from, and easy to learn from." Darby Dickerson, the book's primary author, and the ALWD Citation Manual Advisory Committee, which advised her on the project, have succeeded in creating a manual that meets all these goals.