Legal Writing Prof Blog

Online Style Guides

One of my colleagues on the faculty asked whether to include an apostrophe in the phrase “bachelor’s degree.” (Yes.) Being an academic (and a legal writing teacher), I wanted to cite an authoritative source for that answer. I pulled out my trusty orange volume of The Chicago Manual of Style, but didn’t find the precise answer in its pages. So I went online and immediately found several authoritative academic style guides—including an answer in the online version of the CMoS—giving what I needed. Perhaps one of them will come in handy for you:

• University of Colorado at Boulder Style Guide
• University of Kansas, University Relations Style Guide
• University of Montana Style Guide
• University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Editorial Style Guide
• St. Olaf College Style Guide
• University of Tampa Style Guide

(cmb)

Weresh receives award

Professor Mel Weresh, Assistant Director of Legal Writing at Drake University Law School, has been awarded Drake University's Distinguished Community Service Award.

Congratulations!

(njs)

recommended reading

Professor Melissa Weresh, at Drake University Law School, has written an article on Form and Substance:  Standards for Promotion and Retention of Legal Writing Faculty on Clinical Tenure Track.  It's not slated to be published until the winter, but you can access it now via Expresso's Preprint Series, at http://law.bepress.com/expresso/eps/1778/.  Here's the abstract:

"This article compares standards for promotion and retention of legal writing faculty on a clinical tenure track. The article provides a brief history of legal writing professionals and examines specific employment criteria such as teaching, service, and scholarship. The article makes recommendations regarding those criteria based upon an assessment of institutional realities and the historical development of the profession."

This article will be very helpful for any law school contemplating changes to the terms of employment and contractual operating documents of non-tenure-track legal writing professors.

(spl)

 

“Alex, I’ll take ‘Red Lights’ for 10.”
“The answer is, 'If you use a signal, it may help to use this as well.'”
“What is an explanatory parenthetical?”
“Right!”

Did someone say that learning citation isn’t fun? Now you and your students can play ALWD Jeopardy, 3d edition. Darby Dickerson’s lively powerpoints—not just the Jeopardy game but many, many more citation instruction powerpoints (e.g., lessons on citing statutes, books and treatises, using signals, punctuating and editing quotations, even comparison tables for ALWD and Bluebook)—are available as free downloads from Aspen’s new web site for the ALWD Citation Manual.

(cmb)

Welcome Professor Barger!

Here at the legal writing professors blog, we are delighted to welcome a new co-editor, Professor Coleen Barger from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock Bowen School of Law. Professor Barger is a veteran legal writing professor, who has been active in our field at the national level for many years.  You can read more about her by clicking here.  Once the manager of the law prof blogs returns (i.e., after the weekend), Professor Barger's contact information will appear on the left-hand side of the screen here.

WELCOME COLEEN!

(spl)

rules and analysis exercise?

The "cute overload" website has an interesting drawing of the guidelines that Warner Bros. uses in creating cute cuddly cartoon characters.  You could probably build a fun analysis/rule creation class around the drawing.  Go to http://mfrost.typepad.com/cute_overload/cartoons/index.html and scroll a wee bit down the page.

(njs)

reference "books"

Thanks to Prof. Doug Miller at Temple University, here's a list of potentially useful links:

Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed. 2001. The Encyclopedia of World History, 6th ed. 2001. The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, 3rd ed. 2002. The Columbia Gazetteer of North America. 2000. The World Factbook. 2003. American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th ed. 2000. Roget’s II: The New Thesaurus, 3rd ed. 1995. Roget’s International Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases. 1922 Bartlett, John. 1919. Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. The Columbia World of Quotations. 1996. Simpson’s Contemporary Quotations. 1988. Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations. 1989. American Heritage® Book of English Usage. 1996 The Columbia Guide to Standard American English. 1993. Fowler, H. W. 1908.  The King’s English, 2nd ed. Mencken, H.L. 1921.  The American Language: An Inquiry into the Development of English in the United States, 2nd ed. Quiller-Couch, Sir Arthur. 1916. On the Art of Writing. Quiller-Couch, Sir Arthur. 1920. On the Art of Reading. Sapir, Edward. 1921. Language: An Introduction to the Study of Speech. Strunk, William, Jr. 1918. The Elements of Style.

(spl)

sources of teaching ideas

Proving that inspiration for teaching legal writing can be found almost anywhere, Professor Peter Friedman of Case Western Reserve University refers us to both comic books and Jorge Luis Borges:

http://law.case.edu/faculty/friedman/raw/index.asp?rssId=445

http://law.case.edu/faculty/friedman/raw/index.asp?rssId=456

(spl)

filing a motion when a brief is more appropriate

In a very recent case, the Seventh Circuit (specifically, Judge Easterbrook) does not take kindly to a party's attempt to evade brief length limitations by presenting some of its points as an "absurd" motion to strike portions of the opposing party's brief rather than address them in the reply brief.  The sanction?  Take the number of words in the problematic motion, double it, and subtract that from the permitted length of the reply brief wherein the points should have been made in the first place.

hat tip:  Molly Lien, The John Marshall Law School - Chicago

(njs)

statutory interpretation and legislative intent

A recent North Dakota Supreme Court opinion analyzes the state's recreational use statute and the legislative intent behind it (the dissenting opinion addresses specifically the majority's focus "on the user's use of the property rather than the owner's purpose in making the property available" and which focus is appropriate).

This is a good, easy-to-understand case for 1-L's to use in discussing statutes and statutory interpretation.

(njs)

oral argument as conversation

For a helpful way for law students to think about oral argument, click on:

http://www.illinoistrialpractice.com/2006/09/a_tip_for_oral_.html

hat tip:  Professor Diane Murley, Southern Illinois University

(spl)