Law Commons^™

Gender Neutral Ii, K.K. Duvivier

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

Continuation of article above including discussions of personal pronouns, use of "they," and sex-neutral terms.

Gender Neutral, K.K. Duvivier

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

Regardless of your preference, you should be aware that the use of "he" as a universal gender pronoun now is controversial, and your reader probably will follow only one of two very divergent ideologies. Therefore, fall back on a primary rule of persuasive writing: avoid any words or structures that alienate your rader or distract from your message.

Procrastination, K.K. Duvivier

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

Panic has set in. The deadline for your brief or memo is now measured in hours rather than days. You think, “Maybe the adrenaline will make me more efficient, but if only I had started earlier!” If you often or occasionally find yourself in this predicament, here are three suggestions to help you avoid it in the future.

Personal Narratives And Racial Distinctiveness In The Legal Academy, Maria O'Brien

Faculty Scholarship

A small group of legal academicians is embroiled in yet another debate that, to the uninitiated at least, appears to have little or nothing to do with "the law." ¹ This time the issue is the ideology of legal writing style-that is, does a growing, unique body of legal scholarship that draws on the personal experiences of minority faculty and, arguably, reflects the racial oppression these scholars have suffered, produce "distinct normative insights?" ² Professor Patricia Williams of the University of Wisconsin clearly believes that it does.

In her new book, The Alchemy of Race and Rights,³ which is …

Be Plain, K.K. Duvivier

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

You are pondering which word to use in a brief. Which should you sue—“supra,” “aforementioned” or “above”? Be cautious of Latin and archaic English words. If you use them, your argument, as well as your reputation may be placed at risk.

Legal Research In A Social Science Setting: The Problem Of Method, T Brettel Dawson

Dalhousie Law Journal

As part of its ongoing process of curriculum development, the Department of Law at Carleton University decided in 1988 that a compulsory course in legal research methods was long overdue in the B.A. Honours degree in Law. Fortified with interest nurtured by methodological debates in feminist scholarship,' experience devilling' for a barrister pending my call to the bar, and practice from instructing a course in legal research and writing while a graduate student, I set about developing the proposed course. No guidelines existed for such a course, beyond the logic that it should complement the socio-legal or legal studies focus …

White Space, K.K. Duvivier

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

Assist your reader by providing white space for breaks. Consider the readers' response when confronted with a solid page of print. The same page will be less formidable when broken into three or four paragraphs. Logical break points can always be found, even if the whole page deals with just one idea or subject. Offer your readers "footholds. . .[t]o clamber over the trying cliff-face of prose." Facilitate communication by using shorter sentences and paragraphs.

Judges’ Pet Peeves Ii, K.K. Duvivier

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

The last Scrivener (November issue at page 2257) focused on a leading complaint that four Denver District Court judges identified when I polled them last summer. Recently, I have discussed legal writing problems with a few justices of the Colorado Supreme Court and judges of the Colorado Court of Appeals. This column focuses on some of the concerns voiced by these judges.

Writing For Judges, Pierre Schlag

Publications

No abstract provided.