Festa on Academic Writing in a Doctrinal Land Use Course

Matt Festa (South Texas) has posted Academic Research and Writing as Best Practices in a 'Practically Grounded' Land Use Course (Pace Envtl Law Review) on SSRN.  Here's the abstract:

Land use is a discipline that involves diverse academic, practical, and social perspectives; it is also an ideal subject for applying nontraditional teaching methods, including those suggested by the “best practices” movement in legal education. In this article - a contribution to the “Practically Grounded” conference on teaching land use and environmental law - I suggest that a scholarly research and writing focus can help students develop their practical and analytical skills and values while achieving “best practices” goals in the context of a doctrinal land use course. In the article I set forth a pedagogical basis for including an academic writing component in a doctrinal land use course; and I discuss the experience of teaching a large land use class with a significant research and writing component. The benefits from an academic writing focus may also apply to teaching in other doctrinal fields.

Steve Clowney