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Legal writing

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Full-Text Articles in Legal Writing and Research

And Your Point Is? Write Directly, Robert S. Anderson Jul 2007

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.

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Review Of Lifting The Fog Of Legalese, David I.C. Thomson Jan 2007

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 …

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The House That Jack Built With Effective Transitions, K.K. Duvivier Jan 2007

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.

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"In A Case, On The Screen, Do They Remember What They've Seen?" Critical Electronic Reading In The Law Classroom, Debra Moss Curtis Jan 2007

"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 …

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Learn To Write “Like The Man On The Six O’Clock News”, K.K. Duvivier Nov 2006

Learn To Write “Like The Man On The Six O’Clock News”, K.K. Duvivier

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

Because your writing involves words, it might seem difficult to make your writing "transparent." However, speaking involves words too, and broadcasters employ several techniques to make their words transparent. Consequently, legal writers can look for guidance from the men and women "on the six o'clock news."

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Imagining The Law-Trained Reader: The Faulty Description Of The Audience In Legal Writing Textbooks., Jessica E. Price Sep 2006

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 …

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“Beholder” Reflections—Part Iii, K.K. Duvivier Sep 2006

“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.

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The Clinical Divide: Overcoming Barriers To Collaboration Between Clinics And Legal Writing Programs, Sarah O. Schrup Aug 2006

The Clinical Divide: Overcoming Barriers To Collaboration Between Clinics And Legal Writing Programs, Sarah O. Schrup

ExpressO

Increased communication between legal research and writing (“LRW”) programs and clinical programs is desirable because it provides students with a seamless learning experience, enhances faculty teaching in both departments, and creates opportunities for collaboration that benefits a law-school community generally. But barriers presently exist that hinder collaboration. Specifically, barriers that impact collaboration and integrated learning between LRW and clinical programs stem from: (1) differences in the development of the two disciplines and the resultant differences in teaching methodologies; and (2) other practical barriers including physical separation, status issues, lack of communication, competing demands within the law school and the reality …

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“Beholder” Reflections—Part Ii, K.K. Duvivier Jul 2006

“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.

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“Beholder” Reflections—Part I, K.K. Duvivier May 2006

“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.

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Teaching Legal Research And Writing With Actual Legal Work: Extending Clinical Education Into The First Year, Michael A. Millemann, Steven D. Schwinn Apr 2006

Teaching Legal Research And Writing With Actual Legal Work: Extending Clinical Education Into The First Year, Michael A. Millemann, Steven D. Schwinn

Faculty Scholarship

In this article, the co-authors argue that legal research and writing (LRW) teachers should use actual legal work to generate assignments. They recommend that clinical and LRW teachers work together to design, co-teach, and evaluate such courses. They describe two experimental courses they developed together and co-taught to support and clarify their arguments. They contend that actual legal work motivates students to learn the basic skills of research, analysis and writing, and thus helps to accomplish the primary goals of LRW courses. It also helps students to explore new dimensions of basic skills, including those related to the development and …

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Maccrate (In)Action: The Case For Enhancing The Upper-Level Writing Requirement In Law Schools, Kenneth D. Chestek Mar 2006

Maccrate (In)Action: The Case For Enhancing The Upper-Level Writing Requirement In Law Schools, Kenneth D. Chestek

ExpressO

In 2001, the American Bar Association amended the Standards for Accreditation of Law Schools to require, for the first time, a “rigorous writing experience after the first year.” During the summer of 2004 the author conducted a nationwide survey to determine how law schools responded to this change. The author found that most schools did little more than to require students to take at least one course which was evaluated by means of an academic paper rather than an examination. The author concludes that this is probably not the response the ABA had hoped for, but suggests that a 2005 …

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Eye Of The Beholder, K.K. Duvivier Jan 2006

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.

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When A Rose Isn’T “Arose” Isn’T Arroz: A Guide To Footnoting For Informational Clarity And Scholarly Discourse, William B.T. Mock Jan 2006

When A Rose Isn’T “Arose” Isn’T Arroz: A Guide To Footnoting For Informational Clarity And Scholarly Discourse, William B.T. Mock

International Journal of Legal Information

The essence of footnoting is communication with the reader, but footnote communication that is literally subordinate to the primary text. What a footnote communicates therefore depends upon and extends what the primary text communicates, from telling the reader where to find the source of a reference made in the text through guiding the reader to the different ideas of other members of the invisible college of scholars in the field. By remaining sensitive to the purposes of different footnotes and the needs of the reader, effective footnoting can make a valuable contribution to scholarship.

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Legal Writing Programs And Professionalism: Legal Writing Professors Can Join The Academic Club, James M. Boland Jan 2006

Legal Writing Programs And Professionalism: Legal Writing Professors Can Join The Academic Club, James M. Boland

St. Thomas Law Review

Sociological jurisprudence has been a major factor in legal interpretive schemes for over a century, but this has not been reflected in most legal writing programs. These programs must produce legal writers who not only are competent writers, but are also competent legal theorists who know the difference between classical rule-based reasoning and modem interpretive methods. Concomitantly, legal writing professors must produce scholarship that reflects the diversity of these more complex schemes, rather than just writing about writing. This article will first describe the current condition of legal writing programs, and then suggest changes that more thoroughly introduce students to …

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Blogging And The Transformation Of Legal Scholarship, Lawrence B. Solum Jan 2006

Blogging And The Transformation Of Legal Scholarship, Lawrence B. Solum

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Does blogging have anything to do with legal scholarship? Could blogging transform the legal academy? This paper suggests that these are the wrong questions. Blogs have plenty to do with legal scholarship--that's obvious. But what blogs have to do with legal scholarship isn't driven by anything special about blogs qua weblogs, qua collections of web pages that share the form of a journal or log. The relationship between blogging and the future of legal scholarship is a product of other forces--the emergence of the short form, the obsolesce of exclusive rights, and the trend towards the disintermediation of legal scholarship. …

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Bluebook No. 18—“Thank God For Competition….”, K.K. Duvivier Nov 2005

Bluebook No. 18—“Thank God For Competition….”, K.K. Duvivier

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

The Eighteenth Edition of The Bluebook' is now available, and thanks to competition from the ALWD Citation Manual ("ALWD Manual"), this version is better than ever for practitioners. In the words of Gil Atkinson, '"thank God for competition. When our competitors upset our plans or outdo our designs, they open infinite possibilities of our own work to us."

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Analyze This: Using Taxonomies To Scaffold Students' Legal Thinking And Writing Skills, Christine Mary Venter Sep 2005

Analyze This: Using Taxonomies To Scaffold Students' Legal Thinking And Writing Skills, Christine Mary Venter

ExpressO

This Article describes the deficiencies in current pedagogies used in many law schools. It suggests refocussing attention on the development of students' analytical skills, and describes the use of learning theory and taxonomies to achieve that goal. The argument is made that by specifically developing students' analytical skills, students can become more effective writers and lawyers.

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Colorado Citations, K.K. Duvivier Sep 2005

Colorado Citations, K.K. Duvivier

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

More than ten years ago, I wrote a column addressing special citation forms used by Colorado courts. Readers have clamored for an update, so here it is. . .

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Proofreading Tips, K.K. Duvivier Sep 2005

Proofreading Tips, K.K. Duvivier

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

Typos get attention--negative attention--like a blemish on the tip of your nose on prom night. But there is a difference between our blemishes and our typos: while our blemishes may seem more prominent to us than to others, our eyes usually slip right past our own typos. This column presents some techniques for detecting and correcting these errors.

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Two Rules For Better Writing, Amy E. Sloan Sep 2005

Two Rules For Better Writing, Amy E. Sloan

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

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Sorting Things Out—Which, That, Then, Than, When, Where, K.K. Duvivier Jul 2005

Sorting Things Out—Which, That, Then, Than, When, Where, K.K. Duvivier

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

The May 2005 column addressing "which" and "that" evoked a flurry of comments about additional issues. This column responds to the reader questions that column spawned.

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How To Make Your Appellate Brief More Readable, Jonathon S. Byington Jul 2005

How To Make Your Appellate Brief More Readable, Jonathon S. Byington

Faculty Journal Articles & Other Writings

This article discusses ways to improve the readability of appellate briefs. It is a synthesis of suggestions from several state appellate judges, numerous articles on appellate practice, and the author's own observations.

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Going On A “Which” Hunt, K.K. Duvivier May 2005

Going On A “Which” Hunt, K.K. Duvivier

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

KK: Here's a question that/which I've wondered about for some time. What is the proper use of the words "that"and "which"? I understand their use in the context of "Which car is yours?"and "It's that red one."However which word is proper in my first sentence and how do I know when to use one or the other?

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All For One: Subject-Verb Agreement For Compounds And Collective Subjects, K.K. Duvivier Jan 2005

All For One: Subject-Verb Agreement For Compounds And Collective Subjects, K.K. Duvivier

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

I missed the memo that changed noun-verb agreement on nouns formerly defined as singular i.e. "staff," meaning more than one person, as in "the staff are." When did it change from "the staff is"? Who decided on this change, and why wasn't I notified? I'm making light of this issue, but I'm perplexed. PS. Grammar check didn't get the memo either District Judge Marilyn Leonard.

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"In A Case, In A Book, They Will Not Take A Second Look!" Critical Reading In The Legal Writing Classroom, Debra Curtis, Judith Karp Jan 2005

"In A Case, In A Book, They Will Not Take A Second Look!" Critical Reading In The Legal Writing Classroom, Debra Curtis, Judith Karp

Faculty Scholarship

This article is based on a presentation that was first assembled for the Southeastern Regional Legal Writing Conference in September 2003. The theme of that conference was "The Basics and Beyond: Building Solid Skills on Flawed Foundations." As legal writing professions with nine years of teaching experience between us, we immediately honed in on "reading" as a core lawyering skill--though it is the one that seemed most flawed in the first-year legal writing class. We determined that case analysis, statute analysis, synthesis, and application were not possible unless students critically read the material with which they were working. Many students …

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English As A Second Language - Or Why Lawyers Can't Write, H P. Southerland Jan 2005

English As A Second Language - Or Why Lawyers Can't Write, H P. Southerland

St. Thomas Law Review

For more than thirty years I've spent a lot of time reading bad writing. By bad writing, I mean writing that fails of its essential purpose-so flawed in concept or execution that it can hardly inform, much less persuade. The writing is the sort that lawyers are routinely expected to produce: briefs, judicial opinions, essays dealing with law-related subjects, and the like. What I see, for the most part, is the writing of second- and third-year law students, the vast majority of whom graduate and enter upon a lifetime career as lawyers.' They take with them for tomorrow the writing …

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You've Got Rhythm: Curriculum Planning And Teaching Rhythm At Work In The Legal Writing Classroom, Debra Curtis Jan 2005

You've Got Rhythm: Curriculum Planning And Teaching Rhythm At Work In The Legal Writing Classroom, Debra Curtis

Faculty Scholarship

With increased frequency, attention is being given to the methods and style of teaching the law, and to the educational knowledge of law teachers necessary for their development. While teachers in many other areas of higher education are required to take credit hours in education courses, that requirement or focus on pedagogy itself has not yet fully spilled over to legal education professionals. In addition, although law professions, have been encouraged to think and learn about the law, they generally have long since accepted the Socratic method as a primary method of teaching. Recently information about students' learning styles, and …

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Legal Writing And Academic Support: Timing Is Everything, Dionne L. Koller Jan 2005

Legal Writing And Academic Support: Timing Is Everything, Dionne L. Koller

Cleveland State Law Review

Part I of this essay briefly explores the relationship between academic support and legal writing as it exists in many law schools today. Part II will outline the academic support program at Maryland to give context to the observations presented in this article. Part III will present some of the negative aspects of legal writing courses as they relate to the academic support mission of a law school. Finally, Part IV will describe how a legal writing course can avoid the negatives and be an effective vehicle to deliver more advanced academic support after the first year.

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Legal Writing And Academic Support: Timing Is Everything, Dionne L. Koller Jan 2005

Legal Writing And Academic Support: Timing Is Everything, Dionne L. Koller

All Faculty Scholarship

The conventional wisdom is that legal writing and academic support go hand-in-hand. Most law schools assume that struggling students can be reliably identified for academic support through their first-year legal writing course, and that first-year legal writing instructors can fairly easily and effectively provide this support. Indeed, this is the prevailing view in current academic support and legal writing scholarship. Professor Koller's article challenges the conventional wisdom and instead points out several issues that should be considered if a law school relies on the first-year legal writing course as a component of, or in lieu of, an academic support program. …

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