Style Matters: A Review Essay on Legal Writing (original) (raw)
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LAWYER'S WRITING SKILLS AS A MEANS OF EFFECTIVE LEGAL ANALYSIS
International Multidisciplinary Scientific Conference on Social Sciences and Arts SGEM 2018, SGEM2018 Vienna ART Conference Proceedings, ISBN 978-619-7408-32-4 / ISSN 2367-5659, 19 - 21 March, 2018, Vol. 5, Issue 3.1; 261-268 Pp, DOI:10.5593/sgemsocial2018H/31/S10.033, 19.03.2018 , 2018
This article is a contribution to the discussion and analysis of the law-students' English-language writing skills necessary for effective legal analysis. This paper covers some linguistic issues of lawyer's writing skills developed at law-students studying English at the Institute of Law, Peoples' Friendship University of Russia (RUDN University). The actuality and relevance of this paper is based on the need for adequately prepared lawyers competent to write a speech and various types of legal documents. The goal of the current study is to determine that lawyer's well-developed writing skills contribute to grammatical, lexical, stylistic correctness and effectiveness of legal analysis. To achieve this primary purpose, a descriptive analysis is proposed as a means of presenting key ideas. The methodological bases of the paper are the conceptual provisions of Russian and foreign researchers in the field of applied aspects of linguistics, theory and methodology of teaching foreign languages, intercultural interaction, and English for special purposes. The practical value of the current research is in deepening law-students' knowledge of the English, Russian languages using the rules of morphology, syntax, stylistics adequately and in mastering their writing skills and abilities of the legal opinions' argumentation and justification, the norms of law competent elucidation in these languages. The results of the study may be useful and implemented by the faculty members teaching foreign languages to law-students at non-linguistic universities, because RUDN University law-students' writing skills became stronger and more advanced, students' personal achievements, legal analysis awareness and interdisciplinary subject matter understanding deepened during the period of this study.
A Writing Revolution: Using Legal Writing's 'Hobble' to Solve Legal Education's Problem
2014
The attached article responds to a 2011 article by John Lynch, published in the Journal of Legal Education, that urged legal writing faculty to return to an outmoded and ineffective writing pedagogy, the “product approach,” on the grounds that it would make teaching legal writing easier. This article builds on the work of Carol McCrehan Parker and others interested in writing across the curriculum and argues that the only way to reduce legal writing’s “hobble” and to solve legal education’s problem is to create a six-semester writing requirement.The reason law students are graduating without adequate preparation for practice is that law schools have failed to commit to teaching writing. Most law students graduate having been required to take only an introductory course that teaches practice-related writing skills and an upper-class seminar with a scholarly writing requirement. Law schools can no longer afford to rely on a small percentage of faculty or externships to teach the most ...
Change of style, change of mind: lawyers’ writing manners
This paper explores the relationship between style and epistemology as regards the discipline of lawespecially in the Romanistic traditionand, more specifically, its resistance to interdisciplinarity. Drawing on literary theory and discourse analysis literature, the first part of this paper examines the notion of 'style' in relation to academic disciplines. It argues that the variety of writing styles reflects the various epistemologies underlying the different disciplinary discourses and makes interdisciplinarity difficult to implement in general. The second part of this study borrows Roland Barthes's distinction between 'readerly' and 'writerly' texts in order to show that lawyers' writing manners hinder the ability of law to connect with other disciplines. Against the background of the two sections, this contribution will finally include a discussion on what could be done to enhance law(yers)'s capability for interdisciplinary thinking, concluding that style might be not so insignificant a place to start with.
The Value of Legal Writing, Law Review, and Publication
SSRN Electronic Journal, 2000
While highly developed communication skills contribute substantially to success in other professions and in our personal relationships, legal research and writing is likely the foundation for a successful career in the law. Law review articles are cited by judges in their opinions, by Congress and regulatory authorities in the making of law, and regulations and policy. Any great legal orator, litigator, or Supreme Court Justice will need the benefit of quickly recognizing legally significant fact patterns, the ability to conduct research regarding statutory and case law, and the ability to make compelling, cogent legal arguments. The experience gained from legal research and writing sharpens all these tools. I m hopeful this Article may become a required-reading as one of the first assignments for all incoming first-year law students, or even before any classes begin. Presented first is a brief examination of why lawyers do not write well. Second, is a description of the law review: its value; a brief history of the American law journal experience; the editor selection process; who does what on law reviews; and the number and type of law journals. Thoughts about the writing process and important considerations regarding law review writing in particular are then presented. Reflections by recent law journal editors about their law review experiences are offered, along with suggestions about how authors may improve their manuscripts. Following that, the who, what, where and when of the publication process is covered. Comments about the Social Sciences Research Network (SSRN) are presented, then followed by a brief discussion about the currency value of citations. I believe this Article starts a
The Inside Scoop: What Federal Judges Really Think about the Way Lawyers Write
2002
A recent survey indicates that what troubles federal judges most is not what lawyers say but what they fail to say when writing briefs. Although lawyers do a good job articulating legal issues and citing controlling, relevant legal authority, they are not doing enough with the law itself. Only fifty-six percent of the judges surveyed said that lawyers “always” or
McGill Law Journal, 2017
Edward Berry's Writing Reasons, 1 though aimed at judges who provide written reasons for their decisions, deserves a wider audience. With this version, it may get just that. Originally published in 1998 and selfpublished for the first three editions, this delightful and highly instructive handbook has now been published by LexisNexis. While I lament the loss of some of the third edition's form-its cover, its elegant typesetting, its clever Shakespearean epitaphs leading off each chapter (it still has epitaphs, but now mostly from other sources)-I laud the substantive changes and the decision to leave the book's basic format intact. That format is one in which the author-an emeritus professor of English and long-time leader of judicial writing workshops-goes from macrocosm to microcosm, continually imparting wisdom along the way and asking readers to test how well they've imbibed it through end-of-chapter exercises and answer keys.