New Book: How to Teach Legal Writing

New Book: How to Teach Legal Writing by E. Scott Fruehwald.

I have written this book to help new legal writing professors begin their careers and to help established teachers become expert legal writing teachers. Part I is for new legal writing professors. Chapter One discusses planning and preparation for your first semester of teaching. Chapter Two explains case analysis and my contribution to case analysis–identifying the types of legal reasoning judges use in their opinions. Chapter Three concerns the first class on legal writing, including teaching the three stages of writing, holistic writing, and objective legal writing.

Chapter Four demonstrates how to teach large- and medium-scale organization of the discussion section of an objective memorandum, along with how to articulate that organization. Chapter Five is probably the most important chapter in this book; it shows you how to teach the small-scale paradigm. Chapter Six discusses other topics in teaching the first semester of legal writing. Chapter Seven switches to persuasive writing. It concerns the differences between persuasive writing and objective writing and how to persuasively write a brief. Finally, Chapter Eight tells you how to teach oral argument.

Part II demonstrates how to transition from being a competent legal writing professor to an expert one using general learning theory. Chapter Nine presents teaching and learning theory, including how the brain learns (the neurobiology of learning), Robert Kegan’s developmental stages of learning, and Bloom’s Taxonomy. Chapter Nine then applies that learning to demonstrate how you can become an expert legal writing teacher. Chapter Ten explains the growth mindset and how to motivate your students. Finally, Chapter Twelve explains how to help your students become metacognitive thinkers and self-regulated learners.