Law Commons^™

Communicating With The Impatient, Skeptical Legal Reader: The Thesis Sentence, Michael J. Higdon

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No abstract provided.

Employment Discrimination In Legal Education: Selected Readings Relating To Women, Minorities, And Legal Writing, Lucille Jewel

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This bibliography is a collection of selected readings that address discrimination issues and attitudes relating to the employment of women and minorities in legal education.

The Doctrine Of Legal Writing - Book Review Of Linda H. Edwards's Readings In Persuasion: Briefs That Changed The World, Lucille Jewel

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In legal education, the word “doctrinal” is most often used to refer to courses such as Contracts, Torts, Property, and Criminal Procedure. Doctrinal has long been used as a descriptive adjective, but also as a word of exclusion. We often hear that legal writing courses are not substantive and not as significant as doctrinal courses. Linda Edwards’s new book, Readings in Persuasion: Briefs that Changed the World, persuasively challenges this view.

This paper evaluates what we mean when we use the term doctrinal in a legal education context and considers six powerful descriptors for the doctrine of legal writing, all …

Legal Form, Style, And Etiquette For Email, George Kuney

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No abstract provided.

The Legal Reader: An Exposé, Michael J. Higdon

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John Steinbeck once said, “Your audience is one single reader. I have found that sometimes it helps to pick out the person — a real person you know, or an imagined person — and write to that one.” For legal writers, however, this advice is somewhat difficult to follow as their documents are likely to be read by many different kinds of audience members. In this Article, however, I mean to focus specifically on one particular kind of reader: the legally-trained reader or, more simply, the legal reader. After all, the majority of lawyers will find themselves communicating most often …

Something Judicious This Way Comes... The Use Of Foreshadowing As A Persuasive Device In Judicial Narrative, Michael J. Higdon

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With the recent publication of Judge Richard Posner’s book “How Judges Think” and the nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayer to the United States Supreme Court, there has been much discussion about the way in which judges decide cases. Although certainly an interesting (and important) discussion, what has so far gone largely ignored is the question of how judges, once they reach a decision, convince the legal audience that the decision is in fact correct. Thus, in my article, entitled Something Judicious This Way Comes . . ., I focus not on how judges think, but how they write. More specifically, …

When The Case Gives You Lemons ... Using Negative Authority In Persuasive Legal Writing, Michael J. Higdon

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No abstract provided.

The Legal Reader, The Legal Writer And The All-Important Thesis Sentence, Michael J. Higdon

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No abstract provided.

[Insert Song Lyrics Here]: The Uses And Misuses Of Popular Music Lyrics In Legal Writing, Alex B. Long

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Legal writers frequently utilize the lyrics of popular music artists to help advance a particular theme or argument in legal writing. And if the music we listen to says something about us as individuals, then the music we, the legal profession as a whole, write about may something about who we are as a profession. A study of citations to popular artists in law journals reveals that, not surprisingly, Bob Dylan is the most popular artist in legal scholarship. The list of names of the other artists rounding out the Top Ten essentially reads like a Who's Who of baby …

From Simon Cowell To Tim Gunn: What Reality Television Can Teach Us About How To Critique Our Students' Work Effectively, Michael J. Higdon

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In an effort to illustrate and inform what makes for more effective critique of students' legal writing, this essay analogizes the various critiquing techniques currently taking place on the popular reality programs American Idol and Project Runway to the critiquing techniques used by legal writing professors.

Using Dvd Covers To Teach Weight Of Authority, Michael J. Higdon

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Using various examples, this essay explores how the movie critic quotes that companies select to grace the cover of DVDs (and ultimately help sell the product) can actually be used to teach students about weight of authority.