Use of the or a when referring to documents

The para­graph mark ( ¶ ) is used when cit­ing doc­u­ments with se­quen­tially num­bered para­graphs (e.g., de­c­la­ra­tions or com­plaints). The sec­tion mark ( § ) is used when cit­ing doc­u­ments with num­bered or let­tered sec­tions (e.g., statutes).

The para­graph mark is also known as a pil­crow .

A para­graph mark or sec­tion mark should al­ways be fol­lowed by a non­break­ing space. The non­break­ing space acts like glue that keeps the mark joined with the nu­meric ref­er­ence that follows.

With­out the non­break­ing space, the mark and the ref­er­ence can end up on sep­a­rate lines or pages. This can con­fuse readers.

If the para­graph or sec­tion ref­er­ence comes at the start of a sen­tence, don’t use the mark—spell out the whole word (

Sec­tion 17200 ap­plied to the trans­ac­tion, but § 17500 did not

). In a ref­er­ence to mul­ti­ple para­graphs or sec­tions, dou­ble the mark ( ¶¶ or §§ ).

Though these marks are used most fre­quently by le­gal and aca­d­e­mic writ­ers, there’s no rea­son oth­ers shouldn’t use them

(See § 31.4.2 of the man­ual)

. Why not? They look cool.

• Oc­ca­sion­ally you see para­graph marks used within a solid block of text to de­note in­ter­nal para­graphs. This is ar­chaic. If you need to de­note real para­graphs (not ref­er­ences to para­graphs) then use a first-line in­dent or space be­tween para­graphs.

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