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Full-Text Articles in Law
Polishing Makes Perfect . . . Or Maybe Not, Melissa N. Henke
Polishing Makes Perfect . . . Or Maybe Not, Melissa N. Henke
Law Faculty Popular Media
This column offers some tips and strategies that can improve the proofreading process you use. To be clear, I use the term proofreading to refer to the final stage of editing. Of course proofreading can never take the place of earlier stages of rewriting or revising for organization, content, clarity, or conciseness. But this final stage of editing is crucial, because it is where you identify and fix any problems with spelling, grammar, and punctuation that leave your document looking less than polished.
Respectful Identifiers, Douglas E. Abrams
Respectful Identifiers, Douglas E. Abrams
Faculty Publications
The bills teach that respectful legal writing replaces outdated identifiers of race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, disability or challenge, or other differences among identifiable groups in American society. As Professors Laurel Currie Oates and Anne Enquist advise, respect normally means identifying a group by a name commonly preferred by its members in everyday communication.
Long Ideas, Short Words, Douglas E. Abrams
Long Ideas, Short Words, Douglas E. Abrams
Faculty Publications
This article urges lawyers to invigorate their writing with short words that forcefully and accurately present fact and law For legally trained and lay readers alike, law and public policy are complex enough as it is. Lawyers serve their clients and causes most effectively with the simplest possible writing that, in the context as the lawyer perceives it, conveys the intended message.
Writing In Law Reviews, Bar Association Journals, And Blogs (Part Ii), Douglas E. Abrams
Writing In Law Reviews, Bar Association Journals, And Blogs (Part Ii), Douglas E. Abrams
Faculty Publications
Lawyers commonly write as their clients' representatives, but many lawyers also do "extracurricular writing" in non-representational roles. A few years ago in Precedent (The Missouri Bar's former quarterly magazine), I wrote about lawyers who publish newspaper op-ed columns (essays appearing "opposite the editorial pages") and letters to the editor. The present two-part article explores three additional extracurricular writing opportunities open to lawyers. In the Journal's January-February issue, Part 1 discussed writing or co-writing in law reviews. Part 2 now concludes by discussing writing opportunities in bar association journals and on blogs.
The Structured Writing Group: A Different Writing Center?, Brian N. Larson, Christopher Soper
The Structured Writing Group: A Different Writing Center?, Brian N. Larson, Christopher Soper
Faculty Scholarship
This article describes the objectives, development, and some preliminary results of a program the authors led at the University of Minnesota Law School in academic year 2014-15. They wanted the “Structured Writing Group” (SWG) project to achieve some outcomes traditionally associated with writing centers: first, improving the student writing process by facilitating collaboration with a writing expert; and second, exposing students to additional audiences for their writing. We added a third goal of improving the experience and performance of multilingual students in the legal writing program.
Standing In The Judge’S Shoes: Exploring Techniques To Help Legal Writers More Fully Address The Needs Of Their Audience, Sherri Keene
Standing In The Judge’S Shoes: Exploring Techniques To Help Legal Writers More Fully Address The Needs Of Their Audience, Sherri Keene
Faculty Scholarship
No abstract provided.
Should Your Law Review Article Have An Abstract And Table Of Contents?: An Empirical Analysis, Christopher A. Cotropia
Should Your Law Review Article Have An Abstract And Table Of Contents?: An Empirical Analysis, Christopher A. Cotropia
Law Faculty Publications
A review of the relevant literature turned up no studies examining the influence of abstracts on citation to law review articles. Nor were studies found examining the influence of tables of contents. To chart this territory, we explore whether abstracts and tables of contents impact the scholarly influence of academic work in the field of legal studies by using a large sample of law review articles published in top 100 law reviews. Part I describes our methodology while Part II reports the results. Part III summarizes the results and discusses them in view of the title question: should your law …
Writing In Law Reviews, Bar Association Journals, And Blogs (Part I), Douglas E. Abrams
Writing In Law Reviews, Bar Association Journals, And Blogs (Part I), Douglas E. Abrams
Faculty Publications
Lawyer's commonly write as the client's representative, but this article explores three opportunities for lawyers who wish also to write sometimes in non-representational roles. Part I here discusses writing or co-writing law review articles.
Writing For A Mind At Work: Appellate Advocacy And The Science Of Digital Reading, Mary Beth Beazley
Writing For A Mind At Work: Appellate Advocacy And The Science Of Digital Reading, Mary Beth Beazley
Scholarly Works
Professor Beazley explores the future implications to appellate advocacy as we move into the digital age. Understanding how that digital world affects legal reading is vital to understanding the future of appellate advocacy. Lawyers need to understand some of the science of how people read and interact with the written word; unfortunately, we have been slow to grasp the importance of this science. She defines and explains the concepts of "Active Readers" and "Knowledge Work." She then addresses some of the issues that arise as active readers transition from paper to digital platforms. Professor Beazley concludes by describing some of …
From The Editor, Susan Nevelow Mart
Introducing Marijuana Law Into The Legal Writing Curriculum, Howard Bromberg, Mark K. Osbeck
Introducing Marijuana Law Into The Legal Writing Curriculum, Howard Bromberg, Mark K. Osbeck
Articles
Interest in marijuana law continues to grow, due in large part to the complicated and rapidly evolving landscape of marijuana laws in the United States. Nearly every day, newspapers report on new or proposed legislation and the legal controversies that have arisen with regard to this evolving landscape. There are now several marijuana-law blogs on the Internet, Congress is considering sweeping legislation that would essentially grant significant deference to the individual states, and public opinion continues to move in favor of increased legalization. For the last two years, Newsweek magazine has published special editions devoted exclusively to marijuana law and …