Law Commons^™

Questions From Readers: Redbook Responses-Part I, K.K. Duvivier

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

The last Scrivener' introduced readers to a new comprehensive reference tool for legal writers called The Redbook. This column and Part II, to be printed in the January 2003 issue of The Colorado Lawyer, will present The Redbook responses to reader questions.

You Can Judge A Book By Its Cover: The Redbook, K.K. Duvivier

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

In a bold move this year, a new book on legal style has burst full-grown from its publishers with a title based on the color of its cover: The Redbook. Although there are other, more established "Red Books," the form of the new book's title suggests that The Redbook aspires to stand on par with The Bluebook in scope and stature.

Feminist Legal Writing, Kathryn M. Stanchi

San Diego Law Review

Because feminist legal advocates must use legal writing to persuade

their audience and push for change in the law, they must confront the dilemma of whether to follow legal writing conventions and risk altering or losing their feminist message or whether to break from convention and risk losing the legal audience. Feminist legal scholarship, in many different ways, has made great progress in dealing with this dilemma. The focus of this Article, however, is on several pieces of feminist legal scholarship that have confronted the dilemma by pushing the bounds of conventional legal language and legal writing. These pieces, by …

The Inside Scoop: What Federal Judges Really Think About The Way Lawyers Write, Kristen Konrad Robbins-Tiscione

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

A recent survey indicates that what troubles federal judges most is not what lawyers say but what they fail to say when writing briefs. Although lawyers do a good job articulating legal issues and citing controlling, relevant legal authority, they are not doing enough with the law itself. Only fifty-six percent of the judges surveyed said that lawyers “always” or “usually” make their client’s best arguments. Fifty-eight percent of the judges rated the quality of the legal analysis as just “good,” as opposed to “excellent” or “very good.” The problem seems to be that briefs lack rigorous analysis, and the …

An Arrow To The Heart: The Love And Death Of Postmodern Legal Scholarship, Stephen M. Feldman

Vanderbilt Law Review

Modernist legal writers, including Dennis Arrow in his well-known Pomobabble article, commonly criticize postmodern legal scholars for being muddle-headed nihilistic thinkers who write indecipherable jargon-filled nonsense and lack political convictions. Professor Feldman responds to these and other related criticisms and, in doing so, explains some key components of postmodernism. For instance, he describes how the pervasiveness of postmodern culture infuses legal scholarship with certain postmodern themes. Ironically, then, even the most vehement critics, like Arrow, display a surprising if unwitting affinity for postmodernism. Finally, in order to deflect precipitate denunciations of postmodernism, Professor Feldman suggests a refinement of terms, dividing …

Cross-References, As Stated Above, K.K. Duvivier

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

Often one argument in your brief may share common elements with another. Have you ever attempted to save space and time by simply referring your readers to another argument in a brief with "as stated above" or a similar cross-reference? This article provides tips for helping your readers follow such cross-references with ease.

Footnote Citations?, K.K. Duvivier

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

Let's face it-legal citations can interrupt the flow of sentences and make them harder to read. In comparison, the widely used Modem Language Association documentation style recommends short parenthetical citations in text that direct readers to a list of authorities at the end: for example, "(Gilli- gan 105)."Another format commonly used in history, art history, and other disciplines is that of the Chicago Manual of Style. The Chicago note style uses raised numerals in the text to refer readers to authorities in endnotes or footnotes. Although such a footnote style is predominant in law reviews, few have advocated it in …

Writing Help At Your Fingertips-Readability Scale, K.K. Duvivier

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

Writing well takes constant diligence. We all can use some help. But many of us may not be taking advantage of the tools that are available right at our fingertips. Most of us, especially those who are spelling-challenged, run our documents through spell check. Now, many word processing programs list readability statistics in addition to spelling and grammar advice. For example, in Microsoft Word, go to the 'Tools" category and click on "Spelling and Grammar." At the end of the spell check, Microsoft provides a chart labeled "Readability Statistics." Understanding these readability scales can help improve your writing.

Fiction 101: A Primer For Lawyers On How To Use Fiction Writing, Brian J. Foley, Ruth Anne Robbins

Ruth Anne Robbins

This article talks about how to build a story in legal writing using fiction-writing concepts of character, conflict type and resolution.

Parallel Citations-Past And Present, K.K. Duvivier

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

By quiet decree, the fifteenth edition of the Bluebook changed all of this. The convention of using parallel citations was dropped in every instance except for "state court cases in documents submitted to courts of the state that originally decided them." Parallel citations were no longer required in legal memoranda or law reviews. Furthermore, the fifteenth edition required writers to use only the West version when a single source was listed. This new rule seemed to undermine the value of official citations that traditionally came before the unofficial West versions and suggested a preference for the official source issued by …

A New Bluebook, K.K. Duvivier

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

In late August 2000, the Seventeenth Edition of The Bluebook' hit the shelves of lawschool bookstores across the country. Only a few first-year students have an inkling of what this unassuming, spiral-bound paperback has in store for them. However, savvy second and third-year students know to check the Preface for changes from previous editions. The Preface to the Seventeenth Edition2 lists fifteen "noteworthy" changes from the Sixteenth Edition. Here are six that may have the most impact on practitioners.

String Citations-Part Ii, K.K. Duvivier

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

However, string citations can be useful in some situations. For example, you may wish to use a string citation if you need to illustrate that there is a trend of authorities or that more than one case or jurisdiction supports the proposition you urge. String citations also are helpful when readers expect a comprehensive treatment of authorities.

String Citations-Part I, K.K. Duvivier

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

Whenever you list more than one authority to support the same legal proposition, you are using a "string citation." The name arises from the impression that the writer is "stringing" together several citations. In a string citation, each authority follows the next in a proscribed order: (1) by strength of authority (primary before secondary, enacted law before case law); (2) by jurisdiction (federal before state, alphabetically among states); (3) by rank of court (highest to lowest court); and (4) by date (reverse chronological with most recent first).' Semi-colons are placed between each authority.

Legal Citations For The Twenty-First Century, K.K. Duvivier

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

True, a judge probably won't rule against you if your cites are wrong, but faulty cites do reflect poorly on you.' First, like good manners, proper citations illustrate both your knowledge of the rules of etiquette for legal writing and your precision in following those rules. If your citations are sloppy, some readers may presume that your research and reasoning were done in a similarly uninformed and careless fashion.

Pesky Citations, K.K. Duvivier

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

Constant citation to legal authorities presents a unique problem for legal writers. Although these authorities are necessary to the analysis, integrating them can interrupt the flow of the writing, or more significantly, can obscure the meaning. Law reviews have chosen to use footnotes to address this problem. But footnotes create their own form of vertical interruption,' and many courts discourage their use in briefs. This article addresses some of the difficulties created by these pesky citations and suggests some solutions for incorporating them more smoothly.

Details, Details: Questions From Readers, K.K. Duvivier

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

Readers frequently send me questions about word usage. The Bluebook states that one should consult the US. Government Printing Office Style Manual (1984) or The Chicago Manual of Style (13th rev. ed. 1982) for questions on usage, but these sources do not always address the confusion writers encounter. One of my favorite sources for quick answers on these questions is a dictionary-style reference called Legal Writing: Getting It Right and Getting It Written.

On Writing A Casebook, Myron Moskovitz

Seattle University Law Review

In this Article, the author will discuss his theory for writing a casebook, how to organize the book and select cases, and how to get your book published.

A Reflective Rhetorical Model: The Legal Writing Teacher As Reader And Writer, Linda L. Berger

Scholarly Works

Like most writing teachers, the legal writing teacher believes that his reading and response to student work is the most important thing he does, an importance that is underscored by the amount of time it takes. Yet, despite its importance and the hours it consumes, the rhetoric of teacher reading and writing remains relatively unexplored. This article proposes that we begin to apply what we have learned about student reading and writing to our own reading and writing. Our process of reading and responding to student work should be as reflective and rhetorical as the reading and writing process that …

Avoiding Common Problems In Using Teaching Assistants: Hard Lessons Learned From Peer Teaching Theory And Experience, Edward R. Becker, Rachel Croskery-Roberts

Articles

A majority of American law schools rely on teaching assistants to help administer first-year legal writing, research, and analysis (LWRA) courses. Specifically, surveys jointly conducted by the Association of Legal Writing Directors (ALWD) and the Legal Writing Institute (LWI) consistently detail the extensive use many LWRA professors make of teaching assistants. Likewise, Julie Cheslik recognized in her article about her 1994 survey on the use of TAs in the typical LWRA course that "[o]ne of the most prevalent uses of peer teachers in the law school setting is the employment of upper-level law students as teaching assistants in the first-year …

Mooring Modifiers, K.K. Duvivier

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

Readers can be lost at sea if your writing is foggy about what words or ideas are connected to others. Effective writing requires that every modifier be clearly moored to exactly what it is intended to describe, rather than some other word or idea. Free-floating modifiers risk conveying meaning that is, at best, ambiguous or, at worst, downright contrary to the drafter's in- tent.

Further Saith Naught, K.K. Duvivier

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

Among professions, the law is one most bound by tradition. Not only does the law look back in time for substantive precedents, it also borrows heavily from the language of the past. Do words like "notwithstanding" and "herein" creep their way unnoticed into your legal documents? Do your affidavits contain an "ss" at the top and use alliterative wording such as "subscribed, sworn, and sealed"? These antiquated expressions are not used in standard Modem English, and before you entered law school, they probably were familiar only if you read Old or Middle English literature. To help determine which are expendable, …

Effective Appellate Brief Writing, Clyde H. Hamilton

South Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.

Common Words With Uncommon Meanings, K.K. Duvivier

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

When President Clinton parsed words in his testimony, the response was contempt and disdain. The impeachment trial hinged on the assumption that Clinton's intent in interpreting common words with a narrow or special meaning was deceitful. We lawyers cannot speak to Clinton's intent, and we wince at the bad publicity he is giving to the profession. However, most of us would have to admit that Clinton's use of common words with special meanings is not only acceptable, but commonplace in the law

How To Brief A Case, Christopher Pyle, Lloyd Sealy Library, Katherine Killoran

Open Educational Resources

This is a guide for students on how to brief a case. A student brief is a short summary and analysis of the case prepared for use in classroom discussion. It is a set of notes, presented in a systematic way, in order to sort out the parties, identify the issues, ascertain what was decided, and analyze the reasoning behind decisions made by the courts.

Created by Christopher Pyle, 1982
Revised by Prof. Katherine Killoran, Feb. 1999.

Competent Legal Writing - A Lawyer's Professional Responsibility, Debra R. Cohen

Journal Articles

The legal profession is constantly evolving to keep pace with our increasingly complex society.' Today, the legal profession "is larger and more diverse than ever before." Despite this transformation, "the law has remained a single profession identified with a perceived common body of learning, skills and values." This common body of learning, skills, and values constitutes the fundamental elements of competent representation. Writing is one of the essential skills of competent representation.

"Law is a profession of words." Lawyers use words, both written and oral, in a wide array of contexts-to advise, to advocate, to elicit information, to establish legal …

The Blackletter Law Of Form, K.K. Duvivier

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

Substance, rather than form, should be the first concern of any lawyer drafting a brief. However, just as writing style can have an impact on the image we project, so can the overall impression we make be significantly impacted by the format of our brief.

Applying New Rhetoric To Legal Discourse: The Ebb And Flow Of Reader And Writer, Text And Context, Linda L. Berger

Linda L. Berger

No abstract provided.

Critiquing And Evaluating Law Students' Writing: Advice From Thirty-Five Experts, Anne Enquist

Seattle University Law Review

While there are some differences of opinion about what is the best way to comment on and grade law students' writing, a consensus seems to be developing based on the experience and insights of those in the profession who have done the job the longest and survived to tell about it. To help articulate this consensus, I selected thirty-seven experienced legal writing professors and asked them to respond to a questionnaire about critiquing and evaluating law students' writing. My goal was to gather and record their wisdom, insights, and experience for other legal writing professors, particularly those who are new …

Writing And Reading In Philosophy, Law, And Poetry, James Boyd White

Book Chapters

In this paper I will treat a very general question, the nature of writing and what can be achieved by it, pursuing it in the three distinct contexts provided by philosophy, law, and poetry.

My starting-point will be Plato's Phaedrus, where, in a wellknown passage, Socrates attacks writing itself: he says that true philosophy requires the living engagement of mind with mind of a kind that writing cannot attain. Yet this is obviously a paradox, for Socrates' position is articulated and recorded by Plato in writing. How then can we make sense of what Plato is saying and doing? What …

Applying New Rhetoric To Legal Discourse: The Ebb And Flow Of Reader And Writer, Text And Context, Linda L. Berger

Scholarly Works

Applying New Rhetoric to law school pedagogy, this article suggests an ebb and flow of reader and writer, text and context drawn from New Rhetoric theory, research, and teaching practices. Almost all legal writing scholarship now focuses on some aspect of New Rhetoric. Yet it is likely that the product approach still prevails in the places where the papers are graded, in part because it is the more familiar and straightforward way that papers have always been graded. What follows is an initial attempt to more fully apply New Rhetoric theory and research to the teaching of legal reading and …