Reference to a missing provision
dangling-referenceon by defaultJapanese / English
A reference such as "see Article 5" to an article the document does not have
Example
How to fix
Fix the number or remove the reference. If it points into another document, name that document so the reader knows where to look.
Why it matters
A reference such as "as set out in Section 12" leaves the reader at a dead end when that section is not in the document. It usually happens when a provision is deleted or renumbered and the reference keeps the old number. chaff builds the document's tree of addresses (chaff tree) and checks that each reference's address is in it. A Japanese reference counted in 条 (法第2条) is not looked up in a document that numbers none of its provisions with 条, such as a guideline whose headings read "1 目的", because it points into another document.
What it does not flag
References into another document ("Article 2 of the Act") are not looked up, nor are references inside a section whose heading is the name of a document cited elsewhere in the text, which quotes that document. A paragraph written as a list ("1. ", "2. ") under an article counts as that article's paragraph. A document that numbers none of its provisions as articles is not checked for article references. In a paper whose headings carry bare numbers ("2 Methods"), references written the way it names another document's units ("Article 14 of the Act") are that document's when most of them point nowhere in the paper. A plain-text contract's headings written as text ("9. Indemnification.", "Section 2.3 Appraisal Shares.") and the labels written inside a section's text ("(i)") count as addresses. A section number used as a name ("a section 21 notice") points into another Act and is not looked up. A section cited with the number of a code's title ("section 552(b)(1) of title 5, United States Code") is that code's, and is not looked up. A section that a statute's notes cite with a law's number or with the volume and page that print it ("Pub. L. 98–620, §402(2)", "§2(a), 60 Stat. 237") is that law's, and is not looked up. A section cited with the unit the document sits in ("section 552 of this title", "of this subchapter") is the code's when the document has no heading for that unit, and is not looked up.
Turning it off or relaxing it
Technical details
- Layer
- L3
- Status
- stable
- Severity
- error
- Languages
- Japanese and English
- Suited to
- business, technical, blog, legal, docs, academic, literature, speech
- Reads from the document
- structure
Levels
Set a level for this rule under rules in chaff.yaml. With nothing set, it runs at the level its genre gives it (see By genre below).
| normal | error |
|---|---|
| relaxed | warning |
This rule has no limit to count to. A level sets how a finding is marked: relaxed keeps the finding and marks it a step lower.
By genre
- Runs by default in
- technical/spec, technical/readme, blog/tech, blog/essay, blog/owned-media, business/proposal, business/report, business/email, business/press-release, business/meeting-notes, legal/contract, legal/statute, legal/judgment, legal/patent, docs/manual, docs/faq, docs/glossary, academic/paper, speech/address, speech/transcript
- Turned off by the genre in
- literature/fiction, literature/essay, literature/poetry, literature/play
Message
"{label}" (address {target}) is not in this document
Sources
This page is built from the rule's definition file:packages/chaff/rules/dangling-reference.yaml