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Academic Legal Writing by
Designed to help law students write and publish articles, this text provides detailed instructions for every aspect of the law school writing, research, and publication process. Topics covered include law review articles and student notes, seminar term papers, how to shift from research to writing, cite-checking others' work, publishing, and publicizing written works. With supporting documents available on http://volokh.com/writing, the book helps law students and everyone else involved in academic legal writing: professors save time and effort communicating basic points to students; law schools satisfy the American Bar Association's second- and third-year writing requirements; and law reviews receive better notes from their staff. The Fifth Edition, based on the author's experience teaching his newly designed Intensive Editing Workshop and First Amendment Amicus Brief Clinic, adds material on editing, rebutting counterarguments, writing strategy, identifying and using the key assets of the article, fighting "the curse of knowledge," and submitting articles to law reviews. It also adds extra examples of sound writing, as well as editing exercises.
Culture to Culture: A Guide to US Legal Writing by
Explains the U.S. legal system's rhetorical preferences, linguistic specializations, and current conventions. Readers will be able to learn comfortably and quickly what U.S. audiences expect. The book provides students with U.S. legal tools for reading texts, analyzing problems, researching sources, organizing analytical patterns, and writing in acceptable legal styles. Covering a broad range of topics and questions, it introduces current conventions through a variety of legal texts, including letters, memos, transactional documents, briefs, exams, and scholarly papers.
The Elements of Legal Style by
With expanded coverage in this new edition, The Elements of Legal Style features additional sections, many more examples, and a thoroughly researched appendix that contains 80 major statements on prose style--what it is and how to attain it. Inspired by Strunk and White's The Elements of Style, this book clearly (often wittily) explains the full range of what legal writers need to know: mechanics, word choice, structure, and rhetoric, as well as all the special conventions that legal writers should follow in using headings, defined terms, quotations, and many other devices. Garner also provides abundant examples from the best legal writers of yesterday and today, including Oliver Wendell Holmes, Clarence Darrow, Frank Easterbrook, and Antonin Scalia. If you want to make your writing clearer, more precise, more persuasive, and above all more stylish, The Elements of Legal Style offers the surest--and the most enjoyable--means to that end.
Legal Reasoning, Research, and Writing for International Graduate Students by
Legal Reasoning, Research, and Writing for International Graduate Students helps readers understand and approach legal research and writing assignments the way attorneys do in the United States. Chapters are short and clear, and repeat the major points to aid, in particular, LL.M. candidates who are not native English speakers. A methodology of research and writing in preparing legal documents is presented, and reasoning and writing methods are based on standard IRAC analysis used by many instructors. To allow instructors to discuss citation requirements as they become needed, citation format information is integrated into the text. Most of the exercises in each chapter can be done on the Web as well as in the law library, with either commercial or non-commercial websites. Key Features: An example of rule synthesis based on the simple Soccer close memo example that had been included in the third edition Updated the chapter on the use of technology in the court system and by practicing attorneys, and how both changing technology and economic changes are affecting the legal profession in the United States. New, straightforward, and very effective way for students to outline essay exam questions.
Typography for Lawyers by
Providing advice for presentations, contracts, grids of numbers, and court opinions, and including essays on the font copyrights, screen-reading considerations, and typographic disputes that have reached the courts.
Writing for Law Practice by
Writing for Law Practice organizes documents into three sections that correspond to the three major modes of written communication in the law-"Litigating," "Informing and Persuading," and "Rule-making"-each with its own signature writing skills. The organization of this text is both realistic and helpful to student and teacher. Part One focuses on pleadings and motions, where concept is primary and expression secondary. Part Two covers letters, memos, trial and appellate briefs, and judicial opinions, which require clarity and perseverance as well as creativity. Part Three covers contracts, legislation, and wills, where conceptualization is inextricable from clear and precise expression. Among the advantages of this organization is that it gives the teacher much flexibility in course design. New features of the third edition include new content in Part One reflecting the effect of recent Supreme Court decisions on federal and state pleading practice and the impact of social media on civil litigation; new content in Part Two on e-mail memoranda of law; and new content in Part Three on document design for electronic communication, on drafting federal regulations, and on non-disclosure agreements. In addition, there is a new casefile on child custody rights under international law and exercises and assignments throughout. Finally, the teacher's manual contains supplementary material on depositions and interrogatories. Writing for Law Practice is intended for both "Advanced Writing" and "Introduction to Drafting" courses. Because "drafting" is a term without a single, universally agreed-upon meaning, "drafting" courses do not all cover the same documents. However, this text treats a broad range of documents and a broad range of skills, and so it is suitable for all of these upper-level writing courses.
Legal Research in a Nutshell by
Finding and using legal resources effectively is an essential skill for lawyers. This comprehensive but succinct guide covers research procedures using major online services, free Internet resources, and library materials. Several hundred websites are discussed and placed in context for effective and productive use in research. Discussion includes coverage of legislative history, administrative law, specialized and interdisciplinary resources, and research in international and comparative law. Appendices list state research guides and treatises and services by subject, and a companion website has a regularly updated list of URLs and illustrations of online and print resources. For more information and additional teaching materials, visit the companion site.
Navigating Legal Research and Technology by
Legal research has changed dramatically in the past 20 years, first with the development of electronic legal research using Lexis and Westlaw and then with the introduction of the internet which has forever changed the traditional manual approach to legal research into a hybrid of both manual and electronic legal research.
Drawing from nearly 50 years of combined teaching experience the authors have compiled this unique and valuable work with an approach that differs from most other methods of legal research instruction. In it they have reversed the typical instruction model into a question-answer model that will greatly benefit a large cross-section of researchers from a multitude of disciplines.
In a simple-to-use, efficient reference guide this work provides answers to basic legal research questions as well as definitions of many legal terms. It also delves into the use of online and manual resources to locate answers to more complex questions. Students, librarians, attorneys, paralegals, business professionals, and the general public will truly benefit from this handy reference work.