Omitted Paragraphs in Quotations: How does the Bluebook indicate the omission of an entire quoted paragraph?

• A. Three consecutive periods on one line
• B. Four periods (". . . .") on a separate line
• C. Ellipsis within brackets
• D. The phrase [omitted]

Answer: (B)

In Bluebook quotations, how text is omitted depends on how large the omission is. When an entire paragraph is left out, the convention is to place a line of four periods on its own line to indicate the omission and to signal a paragraph break that was skipped. This distinct, stand-alone four-period line makes it clear that a whole paragraph was omitted rather than just a fragment within a sentence.

The other options don’t fit the situation: three periods on one line indicate a normal ellipsis within a sentence, not an entire paragraph. An ellipsis inside brackets is used in certain editorial practices to show omissions within the quoted material, but it’s not the standard Bluebook way to denote a whole paragraph omission. The phrase [omitted] is not the Bluebook convention for indicating omissions.