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Articles 1 - 16 of 16
Full-Text Articles in Law
Legal Writing Triage: Self-Edit To Solve The Most Common Style Problems, Robert S. Anderson
Legal Writing Triage: Self-Edit To Solve The Most Common Style Problems, Robert S. Anderson
Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship
This article addresses one of the most common style problems in legal writing: subject-verb issues that produce confusing or overlong sentences. It then prescribes a simple approach to curing the problem in quick, step-by-step fashion.
Dismantling The "Other": Understanding The Nature And Malleability Of Groups In The Legal Writing Professorate's Quest For Equality, Mitchell J. Nathanson
Dismantling The "Other": Understanding The Nature And Malleability Of Groups In The Legal Writing Professorate's Quest For Equality, Mitchell J. Nathanson
Mitchell J Nathanson
This article examines the nature of groupings within law school faculties and analyzes why some groups are inherently considered in-groups whereas others (in particular, legal writing faculties) are considered out-groups. The article first explores the science behind the unconscious mind and why we categorize individuals the way we do. Next, this article demonstrates that members of an undesired out-group can be easily transformed into members of the more desirable in-group by modifying the relationships among individuals. This is particularly important to members of the legal writing professorate because, although groups themselves are nothing more than artificial compositions of the unconscious …
The Legal Reader, The Legal Writer And The All-Important Thesis Sentence, Michael J. Higdon
The Legal Reader, The Legal Writer And The All-Important Thesis Sentence, Michael J. Higdon
Scholarly Works
No abstract provided.
The Plot Thickens: The Appellate Brief As Story, Kenneth D. Chestek
The Plot Thickens: The Appellate Brief As Story, Kenneth D. Chestek
Kenneth D. Chestek
Why are appellate briefs boring? Does overreliance on structural paradigms like IRAC lead to formulaic, and overly legalistic, writing? The author suggests that, by conceiving of briefs as stories and consciously using the elements of narrative (character, conflict, setting, theme, and plot, among others), the brief writer can make the client's story come to life for the reader, hopefully producing a more interesting, and therefore compelling, brief. The author has written a brief in a mock case (Rubin v. Old York County Department of Social Services), and then deconstructs the brief in the article to show how the author of …
And Your Point Is? Write Directly, Robert S. Anderson
And Your Point Is? Write Directly, Robert S. Anderson
Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship
This article suggests two strategies for making your writing more direct: (1) make the reader a promise to be direct in the introduction of your piece; and (2) keep that promise by organizing the material to match the preview provided in your introduction and adopting a style that does not waste words.
[Insert Song Lyrics Here]: The Uses And Misuses Of Popular Music Lyrics In Legal Writing, Alex B. Long
[Insert Song Lyrics Here]: The Uses And Misuses Of Popular Music Lyrics In Legal Writing, Alex B. Long
Scholarly Works
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
From Simon Cowell To Tim Gunn: What Reality Television Can Teach Us About How To Critique Our Students' Work Effectively, Michael J. Higdon
Scholarly Works
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.
Unlocking The Secrets Of Highly Successful Legal Writing Students, Anne Enquist
Unlocking The Secrets Of Highly Successful Legal Writing Students, Anne Enquist
Anne M Enquist
Abstract Unlocking the Secrets of Highly Successful Legal Writing Students Anne M. Enquist Seattle University School of Law Why are some law students successful in their legal writing classes and others are not? To identify the secrets to success, I did a case study of six second-year law students as they wrote a motion brief and an appellate brief for their 2L legal writing course. Based on their 1L legal writing course, two of these students were predicted to be highly successful, two were predicted to be moderately successfully, and two were predicted to be only marginally successful. Through daily …
The House That Jack Built With Effective Transitions, K.K. Duvivier
The House That Jack Built With Effective Transitions, K.K. Duvivier
Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship
Constructing a paragraph is somewhat like constructing a house. Our sentences are like the boards that form the frame of our ideas. However, those boards may end up looking more like a pile of lumber than an actual building if we do not connect them in a logical way.
Review Of Lifting The Fog Of Legalese, David I.C. Thomson
Review Of Lifting The Fog Of Legalese, David I.C. Thomson
Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship
Lifting the Fog collects the best of Kimble's regular columns from the Michigan Bar Journal on the subject of how lawyers should simplify their drafting language and eliminate unnecessary and costly "legalese." Not only do Kimble's columns get to see the light of day again, but as a compilation, they make an even more powerfiul and compelling case in favor of more plain language in legal writing. I highly recommend Lifting the Fog to all attorneysespecially those who find themselves using words like "wherefore" and "hereunto" in their drafting. Kimble persuasively argues that this sort of obfuscation (and worse) just …
"In A Case, On The Screen, Do They Remember What They've Seen?" Critical Electronic Reading In The Law Classroom, Debra Moss Curtis
"In A Case, On The Screen, Do They Remember What They've Seen?" Critical Electronic Reading In The Law Classroom, Debra Moss Curtis
Faculty Scholarship
In 2005, we produced a well-received article and presentation entitled, "'In a Case, In a Book, They Will Not Take a Second Look!' Critical Reading in the Legal Writing Classroom." The article examined the educational foundations of critical reading, as well as, critical reading techniques. The purpose was to establish that law students need instruction in critical reading. In the article, we offered creative solutions that had been successfully used in our legal writing classes. In the two years since, we have found it necessary to reconsider the problem of critical reading in the law school classroom, in light of …
Texts, Lies, And Changed Positions, Judith D. Fischer
Texts, Lies, And Changed Positions, Judith D. Fischer
Judith D. Fischer
This review of Judge Richard Posner's Little Book of Plagiarism concludes that the book adds to the discussion of plagiarism by noting the topic’s gray areas and proposing criteria for identifying plagiarism. Posner states that plagiarism occurs when a writer who copies another's language or ideas both conceals the copying and induces readers' reliance. By discussing plagiarism in different settings, including novels, court opinions, professors' work, and student work, the book shows why analysis of the offense and its consequences must be nuanced. Professors should be warned that in places Posner seems to minimize the gravity of student copying, especially …
Transactional Law In The Required Legal Writing Curriculum: An Empirical Study Of The Forgotten Future Business Lawyer, Louis N. Schulze Jr.
Transactional Law In The Required Legal Writing Curriculum: An Empirical Study Of The Forgotten Future Business Lawyer, Louis N. Schulze Jr.
Faculty Publications
Legal Writing courses traditionally focus on litigation writing. The course usually includes assignments on writing interoffice memoranda, drafting trial or appellate briefs, and conducting oral arguments - all in the context of a lawsuit. But, how does this exclusive focus on litigation treat students with no interest in that subject? For future transactional lawyers, the dominance of litigation writing might seem to ignore their needs. Should they be learning how to draft contracts, create corporate documents, or write commercial leasing agreements? This Article examines whether legal writing courses, either in the first year of law school or later, sufficiently address …
Jethro Lieberman And The Litigious Society, Tom Goldstein
Jethro Lieberman And The Litigious Society, Tom Goldstein
NYLS Law Review
No abstract provided.
A Practical Guide To Legal Writing And Legal Method, John Dernbach, Richard Singleton, Cathleen Wharton, Joan Ruthenberg, Catherine Wasson
A Practical Guide To Legal Writing And Legal Method, John Dernbach, Richard Singleton, Cathleen Wharton, Joan Ruthenberg, Catherine Wasson
John C. Dernbach
No abstract provided.
Teaching Professional Responsibility And Ethics, Ronald D. Rotunda
Teaching Professional Responsibility And Ethics, Ronald D. Rotunda
Ronald D. Rotunda
This article discusses the development of teaching legal ethics in light of the changes in the ethics rules over the years. The thesis is that many ethics rules reflect the needs of a cartel (the legal profession) to protect itself, rather than the need to protect the clients of lawyers. The author uses stories and examples to illustrate this thesis.