Friday, March 16, 2007
more from Africa
Conference sessions started on Thursday with a welcome by Laurel Oates and Mimi Samuel of Seattle University. The first session, Models for Teaching Legal Writing, introduced various ways to design LRW courses as to both staffing and basic course structure. After participants shared morning tea and ideas about how their institutions help students to develop their writing skills, the second session explored the limits of transplanting US models to other countries. Here I am during my session on the product and process approaches to teaching writing, working with small groups during an exercise.
(njs)
March 16, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Thursday, March 15, 2007
and here's the cheetah . . .
Upon noticing the many safari vehicles surrounding the scene, the cheetah takes a look at the audience . . .
(njs)
March 15, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
look who's here!
Look who's on safari in Africa!! Last Friday, while watching a cheetah industriously eating its tasty gazelle dinner, Jana McCreary (Texas Wesleyan) and I looked up to see Grace Tonner (Michigan), Catherine Wasson (Widener), and Camille DeJorna (ABA), in the next vehicle over. Understand that it's important to be rested for a big event like the conference!! Camille gave a wonderful talk about legal education at dinner this evening, so the safari apparently readied her rather nicely for the big event.
(njs)
March 15, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
odd law book titles: what's on your shelf?
The Law Librarian Blog has begun a contest to find the "oddest law book title." To submit your nomination, post your nominated title no later than March 23. The blog will poll its readers to choose their favorite from the nominees beginning April 2. Among the titles already nominated are:
Blackie the Talking Cat: And Other Favorite Judicial Opinions (West 1996)
- The Law of Cadavers, Second Edition (Prentice-Hall, 1950)
- No justice, no piece! : a working girl's guide to labor organizing in the sex industry / by the hell-raisin' hussies who organized the Exotic Dancers Union at San Francisco's Lusty Lady Theater
(publisher and publication date unfortunately not provided!)
(cmb)
March 13, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (1)
on the road to Nairobi
The Conference on Legal Writing Pedagogy for African Legal Academics begins tomorrow, Wednesday, in Nairobi. About 20 American and 40 African law professors will be participating.
The road to Nairobi has been an experience, filled with safari and friends and an eye-opening look at the city itself. I'll be attaching photos soon!
(njs)
March 13, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Monday, March 12, 2007
quotable
"The purpose of writing is to inflate weak ideas and inhibit clarity. With a little practice, writing can become an impenetrable fog!"
- Bill Waterson, Calvin and Hobbes
hat tip: Prof. Wanda Temm
(spl)
March 12, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
legal writing grading haiku
Last week, I was inspired to write:
Some escape from arctic blasts;
inside you have to
face that stack of trial briefs.
This week, Miki Felsenburg, at Wake Forest, wrote:
Spring Break time interfer-
ing with my doing
all the grading left to do.
P.S. to those who wrote last year to suggest this is not haiku, just doggerol:
This is a genre of its own, "legal writing grading haiku." It mimics the most superficial format aspects of haiku and focuses for its subject matter solely on the grading of legal writing papers.
(spl)
March 12, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Saturday, March 10, 2007
on the move
Next fall, Lisa McElroy will be joining the faculty at Drexel University College of Law as an Associate Professor of Law. She'll be teaching in the first year Legal Methods curriculum, and also offering a Supreme Court Seminar. The other professors already teaching legal writing at Drexel are Kevin Oates, Emily Zimmerman, and program director Terry Seligmann.
(spl)
March 10, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Friday, March 9, 2007
legal writing at Harv. L. Rev.
I thought this post linked here and the comments after it might be appropriate Friday afternoon entertainment for those concerned with legal writing in the real world.
(spl)
March 9, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Thursday, March 8, 2007
logic for law students
Look out for a new article on Logic for Law Students: How to Think Like a Lawyer, due out in 2007 in the University of Pittsburgh Law Review. The distinguished authors are:
RUGGERO ALDISERT, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
STEPHEN CLOWNEY, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
JEREMY PETERSON, U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals
You can access the full text of their article free at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=966597
And here's their intriguing abstract:
"Law schools no longer teach logic. In the authors' view this is tragic, given that the fundamental principles of logic continue to undergird the law and guide the thinking of judges."
"In an effort to reverse the trend, this essay explains the core principles of logic and how they apply in the law school classroom. The manuscript begins by examining the basics of the deductive syllogisms and then turns to inductive generalizations and the uses and abuses of analogies. The authors claim that students who master the basics of logic laid out in this article will be better lawyers and will feel more comfortable when they find themselves presenting arguments to judges and juries."
(spl)
March 8, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Tuesday, March 6, 2007
call for papers
Journal of the Association of Legal Writing Directors
Call for Articles
Fall 2008 Legal Writing Beyond Memos & Briefs
__________________________
The Journal of the Association of Legal Writing Directors (J. ALWD) invites submission of articles for its Fall 2008 Legal Writing Beyond Memos & Briefs issue. In this issue, the Journal will publish articles about the "best practices" of legal writing in contexts other than the traditional litigation setting. Although much valuable legal writing scholarship has focused on the memoranda and briefs that are produced in connection with lawsuits, many lawyers are engaged in other kinds of writing: they draft transactional documents, legislation, rules, and regulations; they write formal and informal opinions and correspondence; they produce essays and articles for legal scholars and practicing lawyers.
The Journal encourages submissions for this issue from law professors, practicing lawyers, and judges as well as from academics, researchers, and specialists in other disciplines. In addition to full-length articles, the Journal welcomes essays and practice notes. The final deadline for submission of articles is September 15, 2007. Article selection will be completed by November 1, 2007.
Topic ideas
For the Fall 2008 Legal Writing Beyond Memos & Briefs issue, the Journal editors envision that major articles may address subjects such as the following:
1. How should "plain English" theory affect the drafting of legislation, regulations, court rules, and jury instructions?
2. Will application of rhetorical, metaphor, and narrative theories help lawyers produce more persuasive and effective transactional documents?
3. Can empirical research help lawyers draft documents that better meet the needs of non-lawyers, including such documents as form contracts, liability releases, arbitration agreements, government regulations, and jury instructions?
4. Does interdisciplinary theory and research suggest ways to enhance the effectiveness of other forms of lawyers' communications, including marketing, advertising, e-mails, client letters, and opinion letters?
5. Does ethnographic and empirical research shed light on the practice of legal writing in different professional settings?
6. Are different writing processes and critical analyses appropriate for generating effective legal documents that fall on "the other side" of legal writing?
Mission
The Journal's mission is to generate landmark volumes within the field of legal writing by encouraging and publishing scholarship that uses theory, research, and experience to propose and develop "best practices" within a specific subject area. The Journal aims to be an active resource and a forum for conversation between the legal practitioner and the academic scholar. To accomplish these goals, the Journal is interested in two kinds of articles: (1) articles that develop the theory and research the practice of legal writing, and (2) articles that apply theoretical and research findings from law and other disciplines to the "doing" of legal writing. In addition, the Journal will publish selected "practice notes" designed to highlight a strategy or technique applied in the field, a current problem or obstacle, or a new issue that has not yet received much scholarly attention.
Without compromising analytical rigor and the need to provide theoretical and research underpinnings for practical application, the Journal emphasizes readability and accessibility. To ensure the widest possible audience, the Journal appears not only in printed and bound hard copy, published by Thomson West, but also on Westlaw and the ALWD website, www.alwd.org
Submission Guidelines
Completed manuscripts will be accepted through September 15, 2007. The Journal editors prefer that manuscripts not be under submission elsewhere; please advise us if you are submitting your manuscript to other publications. Manuscripts should be accompanied by (1) a cover letter summarizing the article and (2) the resume of the author, including telephone number and e-mail address. For major articles, the Journal will consider manuscripts from 30 to 50 typewritten pages (7,500 to 12,500 words). For practice notes, the Journal recommends manuscripts from 5 to 15 typewritten pages. All manuscripts should be prepared in Microsoft Word 2000 or higher, using double-spacing, one-inch margins, 12-14 point font, and footnotes (not endnotes). Hard copies should be submitted on 8 1/2 x 11 paper, printed on one side only. Citation format should adhere to the ALWD Citation Manual (3d ed., Aspen L. & Bus. 2006). The Journal discourages textual footnotes.
The Journal will use a two-step review process: an initial internal review by the Editorial Committee, followed by anonymous external peer review, with final publication decisions made by the Editorial Committee.
Please send submissions (preferably electronic) of completed manuscripts to:
or to the following address:
Linda L. Berger
Chair, Editorial Committee, J. ALWD
Professor
Thomas Jefferson School of Law
2121 San Diego Ave.
San Diego, CA 92110
phone (619) 374-6933, fax (619) 296-4284
Submissions will be acknowledged by e-mail.
(spl)
March 6, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (1)
Sunday, March 4, 2007
the 7 deadly sins
I think I can just retire and send my students links to URLs when there are postings as spot on as the 7 deadly sins of persuasive writing. It's exactly what we discussed in class last week, when talking about how to write an effective argument section for an appellate brief.
hat tip: Professor Diane Murley
(spl)
March 4, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Saturday, March 3, 2007
legislative support of good grammar
A legislator in Arkansas (and graduate of the law school where I teach) has received national attention, some of it positive and some of it negative, for introducing a non-binding resolution to encourage the possessive form of his state's name to be rendered Arkansas's. I wholeheartedly agree, and I have e-mailed him the following message of support:
Dear Rep. Harrelson,
Therefore, soldier on, brave one! I am behind you all the way! And you can quote me on that.
March 3, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Thursday, March 1, 2007
punchy first lines
Today on the Legal Writing Institute's listserv, University of Missouri-Columbia's legal writing prof John Mollenkamp shared a wonderful lead from a news story to illustrate to students the impact of starting a brief's fact statement "with a punch" (quoting Richard Neumann). This one successfully draws the reader in and keeps her reading. Here's the first line of that story:
"A jazz musician was injured Friday after jumping from a burning motor home driven by a one-time roller skating stripper from Lodi."
Prof. Mollenkamp credits humorist Dave Barry’s blog for bringing the story to his attention. (You remember Barry, don't you? Mr. Language Person?) We thank everyone responsible for inspiring and sharing this gem.
(cmb)
March 1, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (1)