Should We Involve Students When Drafting a Statement of Facts for a Memorandum Problem?

Karin Mika at Cleveland-Marshall College of Law in Ohio has an interesting essay on the subject of Developing Internal Consistency in Writing Assignments by Involving Students in Problem Drafting.  It appeared in the Winter 2008 issue of Perspectives: Teaching Legal Research and Writing.

In her essay, Karin describes a new teaching strategy in which she divided students into groups and assigned them a fact-specific issue statement, such as whether a public utility should be liable for negligence when a child is injured after climbing up a utility pole by means of a ladder left out by a utility company worker who was planning to return to the site the following day.

What was the result of her experiment with this new teaching strategy?  I don't want to spoil the surprise for you, so click on the link to get a copy of the article (or dig out your winter issue of Perspectives!).  Her observations may well change how you handle your next memorandum assignment.

(mew)