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Full-Text Articles in Law
Imagining The Law-Trained Reader: The Faulty Description Of The Audience In Legal Writing Textbooks., Jessica E. Price
Imagining The Law-Trained Reader: The Faulty Description Of The Audience In Legal Writing Textbooks., Jessica E. Price
ExpressO
In law schools today, first-year legal writing courses play a crucial role in helping students learn to communicate about the law. Many legal writing teachers approach legal writing education in a practical way, attempting to pass on their own experiences in law practice settings to students. Unfortunately, as other writers have observed, such reliance on personal knowledge about “what lawyers are like” may lead legal writing teachers to oversimplify a complicated matter – the needs and preferences of the audience for legal writing – and may even amount to indoctrination in stereotypes about law practice. This article offers a closer …
“Beholder” Reflections—Part Iii, K.K. Duvivier
“Beholder” Reflections—Part Iii, K.K. Duvivier
Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship
This is the final column in a series addressing reader expectations for objective legal writing. In the January 2006 Scrivener, I posted three samples of objective legal writing and asked readers to give me feedback through an online survey about which they preferreda nd why. The May and July columns provided analysis of reader responses to introductory and rule explanation paragraphs. This column reports on reader reactions as to what many lawyers would argue is the most important part of a legal analysis: application of the legal rule to a client's facts.
“Beholder” Reflections—Part Ii, K.K. Duvivier
“Beholder” Reflections—Part Ii, K.K. Duvivier
Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship
This column is the second in a series analyzing feedback from readers about what they believe is good legal writing. In the January 2006 Scrivener, I provided a survey containing writing samples for three parts of an objective legal analysis. The survey questions asked readers to indicate which samples they preferred and why, and to comment on specific devices used in the samples.
“Beholder” Reflections—Part I, K.K. Duvivier
“Beholder” Reflections—Part I, K.K. Duvivier
Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship
In the January 2006 Scrivener, I sought advice from my readers: Is the perception of what constitutes good legal writing in the eye of the beholder? By measuring reader reflections of the samples I posted in a survey online, I am attempting to answer this question.
Eye Of The Beholder, K.K. Duvivier
Eye Of The Beholder, K.K. Duvivier
Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship
Fortunately, some universals about legal audiences help make the task of defining good legal writing easier than defining good fiction writing. Legal writing must be utilitarian, so the emphasis should be on the message rather than on the writing itself. Consequently, to avoid distracting or turning off readers, my students must concentrate as much on what they should not write as on what they actually do write.