The Nonbreaking Space

I thought I would “break” in my blog with an easy, practical, tip: Use the “nonbreaking space” symbol to prevent citations from being broken up across lines of text.

Here is the problem. Proper citation form requires you to place a space after a “§” and the number of the section: like § 1332, not §1332. Bluebook, R. 6.2(c).  But if you use a regular space to separate them, Word treats the section symbol and the section number as two separate words. So if the section symbol appears at the end of a line of text, the number will appear on the next line of text.

The "nonbreaking space" solves this problem. It "sticks" the section symbol to the section number and prevents them from being separated.  There are two ways of inserting it.

The hard way is to use the menus: select insert-->symbol, select the "Special Characters" tab, and then select the "Nonbreaking Space" item. The space looks like any other space, but will keep the § with the reference.  (If you use the "Show ¶" option, the space will appear as a little circle rather than a dot.)

The far better way to do this is to use the keyboard shortcut: Ctrl+Shift+Space. Every lawyer, paralegal, and legal secretary should know this key combination by heart. Yet every day, I see finished legal documents with a "¶" or "§" separated from the number reference. It looks sloppy and unprofessional. And now you have no excuse . . .