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2009

Series

Legal Writing and Research

Faculty Articles

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Law

Voice, Self, And Persona In Legal Writing, Chris Rideout Jan 2009

Voice, Self, And Persona In Legal Writing, Chris Rideout

Faculty Articles

From the author's view, sorting out the complexity of voice—and discussing voice in legal prose—requires a rethinking of who the writer is in legal discourse and, importantly, how that writer is represented in legal prose. It becomes a question not of self expression, but of self-representation and persona. This article will first look at discussions of voice in writing—beginning with what we might mean by voice, then with discussion of personal voice, and then of professional voice. The article then offers another model for looking at voice — a discoursal model — and use that model to reconstruct the idea …


Crossover, Richard Delgado Jan 2009

Crossover, Richard Delgado

Faculty Articles

Should minority writers aim for a "crossover" audience of mainstream (white) readers or write mainly for a circle of readers like themselves, viz., minorities or people of color? Despite the attractions of achieving crossover status -- including fame, fortune, and book reviews -- the article argues that writers of color should usually visualize an audience of their peers, that is, readers of color. Writing for a broad audience of mostly white readers risks that the minority writer will adopt topics, language, and approaches that will appeal and ring true to this group. Consciously or unconsciously the writer may pull his …