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Legal Research Skills Guide: Pinpoints

Pinpoint references

In AGLC4, pinpoints are used for a reference to a specific page or paragraph.  

Some things to remember!

A pinpoint reference to a page appears as a number. Do not use ‘p’ or ‘pg’. 

A pinpoint reference to a paragraph appears as a number in square brackets [ ]. Do not use ‘para’.

For resources that use a starting page, the pinpoint is generally included after the starting page, preceeded by a comma and space.

Example 1

57 HLA Hart, The Concept of Law (Clarendon Press, 1970) 15. 15 refers to page 15 in this book

Example 2

79 Cartwright v Cartwright [2007] NTSC 32 [10]. This is a medium neutral citation, so paragraph references should always be used. [10] refers to paragraph 10 of the judgment

Note! If both the page and paragraph are referred to, the pinpoint will be Page [Paragraph].

Example 3

82 Alysia Blackham, 'Judges and Retirement Ages' (2016) 39(3) Melbourne University Law Review 738, 739. This is pointing to page 739 of an article that starts on page 738 of the journal

Activity #29 - Using pinpoints

Charles Sturt University acknowledges the traditional custodians of the lands on which its campuses are located, paying respect to Elders, both past and present, and extend that respect to all First Nations Peoples.Acknowledgement of Country

Charles Sturt University is an Australian University, TEQSA Provider Identification: PRV12018. CRICOS Provider: 00005F.