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Full-Text Articles in Legal Writing and Research

The Discipline Of Breaks: Making Time For Rest (And Revisions) In Legal Writing, Patrick Barry Jan 2024

The Discipline Of Breaks: Making Time For Rest (And Revisions) In Legal Writing, Patrick Barry

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Editing your work involves the tricky business of finding the right mental distance between two versions of yourself: the version that did the drafting and the version that now needs to do the revising. Mastering that kind of cognitive division is not always an easy task.


Flawless First Draft In Legal Writing: A Fantasy Of The Uninitiated, Patrick Barry Jul 2023

Flawless First Draft In Legal Writing: A Fantasy Of The Uninitiated, Patrick Barry

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I recently received an email from a former student (now a public interest lawyer) who had just finished a major writing project. She wanted to thank me for introducing her to the psychologically liberating concept of “shitty first drafts.” Without it, she said, she probably would have never hit her deadline.


Preface, Margaret C. Hannon, Ruth Anne Robbins Jan 2022

Preface, Margaret C. Hannon, Ruth Anne Robbins

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The overarching theme of Volume 19 of Legal Communication & Rhetoric: JALWD is how legal communication shapes the law, and how doers of legal writing can use their resources to make it better. The volume begins with a fascinating article from Aaron Kirschenfeld and Alexa Chew, “Citation Stickiness, Computer-Assisted Legal Research, and the Universe of Thinkable Thoughts.” In their article, Professors Kirschenfeld and Chew shed light on whether the switch from print research to digital research has changed the way that law students and lawyers conduct research. To do so, the article uses the “citation stickiness” metric, which analyzes whether …


Preface, Margaret C. Hannon, Joanne Sweeny Jan 2021

Preface, Margaret C. Hannon, Joanne Sweeny

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Volume 18 of Legal Communication & Rhetoric: JALWD introduces the theme of author as travel guide who can transport their reader to new places. Lisa Eichhorn’s article, “Tonal Variation,” introduces the concept of tone, which is defined as the author’s attitude toward the audience. Using this frame, Professor Eichhorn explains how the author can use tone to shape the relationship with the reader. The article examines and contrasts two recent judicial opinions authored by Supreme Court Justices Kagan and Gorsuch. Through these tonal analyses, Professor Eichhorn shows how, even within an opinion, the tone may shift as the opinion moves …