Legal Writing and Research Commons^™

Alwd Citation Manual: A Professional System Of Citation, Terrill Pollman, Leah A. Kane

Scholarly Works

The Association of Legal Writing Directors (ALWD) has written a new citation manual that is easy to teach from and easy to use.

Although the ALWD Manual provides a very different teaching and learning experience, practitioners should experience few difficulties adjusting to the new manual.

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 …

Resistance Is Futile: How Legal Writing Pedagogy Contributes To The Law's Marginalization Of Outsider Voices, Kathryn M. Stanchi

Scholarly Works

This Article will examine the ways in which legal writing pedagogy contributes to the marginalization of outsider voices in the law. In Part II, the Article explores the two reigning pedagogies of legal writing and describes the linguistic model used to gauge how teaching law as language marginalizes outsider voices. In Part III, the Article applies the linguistic model to explore specific examples of how legal writing pedagogy may contribute to the marginalization of certain groups by focusing on audience and socializing them into the culture and language of law. In Part IV, the Article considers various solutions, all of …

The Process And The Product: A Bibliography Of Scholarship About Legal Scholarship, Linda H. Edwards, Mary Beth Beazley

Scholarly Works

This bibliography of scholarship about legal scholarship was originally prepared for the 1997 Conference of the Association of Legal Writing Directors. The Conference explored the rapidly developing area of scholarship by legal writing professors and the ways in which this important scholarship can be encouraged. Characteristically, when writing teachers turn their attention to a particular kind of writing project, they begin by examining both the genre and the creative activity the genre employs—that is, the process and the product. This bibliography is one result of that study. The authors hope that it will prove helpful to anyone interested in legal …

From Product To Process: Evolution Of A Legal Writing Program, Jo Anne Durako, Kathryn M. Stanchi, Diane Penneys Edelman, Brett M. Amdur, Lorray S.C. Brown, Rebecca L. Connelly

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

The Self-Graded Draft: Teaching Students To Revise Using Self-Critique, Mary Beth Beazley

Scholarly Works

In this article, Professor Beazley first explains why the predictability of legal documents, legal writers, and legal readers makes an objective method of self-critique particularly useful in legal writing. She then discusses how she designs self-grading guidelines and explains various methods for incorporating the self-grading process into a legal writing course. Finally, she addresses some of the challenges she faced when assigning the self-graded draft to students, and discusses ways to deal with these challenges. In appendixes, Professor Beazley included two samples of self-graded draft guidelines for use in a three-draft Memorandum Assignment, as well as a short illustration of …

A Writer’S Board And A Student-Run Writing Clinic: Making The Writing Community Visible At Law Schools, Terrill Pollman

Scholarly Works

In this article the author explains institutional programs she has developed in response to a common problem, students’ frustrations with the limits of a law school’s legal writing program. The author proposes establishing a Writers’ Board, where members of the law school community who care most about legal research and writing training can work together to create opportunities for students to learn more. The Writers’ Board’s primary project is a Writing Clinic that offers diverse ways to improve legal research and writing on campus. Despite problems that are likely to arise when creating a Writers’ Board and Clinic, the author …

The Convergence Of Analogical And Dialectic Imaginations In Legal Discourse, Linda H. Edwards

Scholarly Works

The dialogue over the role of narrative in the making and interpreting of law and in legal practice is often stalemated by confusion about the complex relationships between narrative and other forms of legal reasoning. Are narrative and rules opposing methods for interpretation and persuasion? Does narrative theory assert that lawyers can win cases by presenting a sympathetic story, without regard for the governing rule of law? If so, it is no wonder that conversations about narrative theory are so difficult.

This article explores the relationship between narrative and other forms of legal interpretation and persuasion. It relies on David …

Legal Classics: After Deconstructing The Legal Canon, Francis J. Mootz Iii

Scholarly Works

The debate over the canon has gripped the University in recent years. Defenders of the canon argue that canonical texts embody timeless and universal themes, but critics argue that the process of canonization subordinates certain people and viewpoints within society in order to assert the existence of a univocal tradition. Originating primarily in the field of literary criticism, the canon debate recently has emerged in legal theory.

Professor Francis J. Mootz argues that the issues raised by the canon debate are relevant to legal scholarship, teaching and practice. After reviewing the extensive commentary on the literary canon, Professor Mootz criticizes …

Teaching Students How To "Think Like Lawyers": Integrating Socratic Method With The Writing Process, Mary Beth Beazley, Mary Kate Kearney

Scholarly Works

Professor Beazley begins this article with an overview of how Socratic method and the writing process have traditionally been used and how they can be integrated in the legal writing course. The remainder of the article is devoted to an analysis of how this integration can be achieved in a five-step structured dialogue. She and her co-author identified these five steps as: (1) the assignment, or "instigating question"; (2) the student's written answer, in a series of "focused drafts" with "private memos"; (3) the teacher's written response, using Socratic questions whenever possible; (4) the conference, where the teacher can use …

The Egalitarian Fallacy, Ann Puckett

Scholarly Works

Professor Puckett contends that a policy of treating all law library staff members as equals is an injustice to the professional librarian, dilutes the inherent strength of any library, and impairs library services by requiring professionals to spend valuable time on nonprofessional tasks.