5. Find the Exact Supporting Passage

5.1 Prefer the source's own coordinates

Use the source's stable printed page, official paragraph number, section, article, or other assigned locator. A PDF viewer's page counter is often different from the page number printed on the document. Front matter, covers, and appended documents create offsets. Compare the displayed page with the visible source label before recording a pinpoint.

When no stable source locator exists, use the most precise honest alternative: a section heading, table number, timestamp, or specifically described location. Do not invent paragraph numbers because a word processor happens to display them. If you must refer to PDF page 12, identify it as a PDF page and preserve the exact file version.

5.2 Cite the amount of material the proposition needs

Choose the narrowest locator that allows a reader to evaluate the proposition fairly. A single-page pinpoint is appropriate when the passage is self-contained. A range is appropriate when the reasoning spans pages. Scattered pages should be listed separately when a continuous range would misleadingly suggest continuous support.

Citation Code retains complete endpoint numbers in examples: 104–106 rather than compressing the second number. This is a readability choice. Apply a different shortening convention when required. Do not shorten section identifiers, docket numbers, or database identifiers as though they were ordinary page ranges.

5.3 Separate first page and pinpoint

The first page of a reported opinion identifies the report. The pinpoint identifies a passage within it. Dropping the first page from an initial full citation can make the case harder to locate; substituting the first page for an actual pinpoint leaves the reader to search the entire opinion.

Pattern only: [Case], 100 [Reporter] 200, 207 ([court] [year]). Here 200 identifies the start of the report and 207 identifies the passage. The numbers are fictional teaching coordinates, not an actual authority.

For a short reference that follows an adequate full citation, the first page may no longer be necessary to identify the case. That shortening decision belongs to chapter 8. The need for an accurate pinpoint remains.

5.4 Check footnotes, tables, and attachments

If the proposition appears in a footnote, identify the note as well as its page where useful. If it appears in a table, identify the table and relevant row or column when ordinary pagination is insufficient. If it appears in an attachment, identify that attachment rather than assuming the main document's citation reaches it.

A source packet should record the location in a way another reviewer can reproduce. “Near the bottom” is poor durable metadata. “Table 2, column headed ‘Median,’ row ‘All districts’” is a meaningful locator if those are the source's actual labels.

5.5 Verify after conversion

Conversion can change location. An HTML opinion may include star pagination; a downloaded PDF may display reporter pages; a scanned file may use image-page counts. Recheck the passage when moving between them. OCR search is a way to find a candidate passage, not proof that the visible text matches the extracted text.

For quotations, compare the final text against the visible source. Watch for dropped negatives, mistaken section symbols, hyphenated line endings, and digits read as letters. A perfectly formatted reference to a corrupted quotation remains a defective citation.