Scholarly Legal Writing Essays - Pedagogy, Academia,

Scholarly Legal Writing The education of lawyers must not merely involve the acquisition of knowledge and skills; it must include the cultivation of creative thinking and imagination, the appreciation of the commonality of the human condition, and development of a sense of judgment and responsibility. Hence, lawyering includes the ability to understand and critique existing and emerging visions of the profession in relation to interdisciplinary and multicultural perspectives, the implications of technology, and the consequences of economic globalization.# As the preceding quotation suggests, legal scholarship has a major impact on the future of the profession. The future of any legal student must begin with a strong foundation of legal knowledge. A cornerstone of this foundation must be the practice and interpretation of scholarly legal writing. Scholarly legal writing in itself can be a very complex, even scary term for law students to understand and apply. However, the way in which legal writing is applied may very well hold the key to whether or not the writing is understood and properly judged. During the course of this paper, I will demonstrate and shed understanding on the effective writing process of scholarly legal writing a student will encounter in law school. I will show and explain the writing style as well as examine the different writing styles used. I will give an understanding of how scholarly/critical legal writing is relevant in the development and usage of other legal writing skills. Finally, I will show an essay I created to demonstrate many of the scholarly legal writing skills and techniques this paper shows. I believe you will find the techniques and strategies in this paper to be inspirational, crucial and essential in creating effective scholarly legal writing. You will leave with the basic understanding of how scholarly legal writing can enhance your writings and yourself. Perhaps the most difficult part of writing a legal paper is choosing a subject and developing a thesis. Allowing you to put your own educated take on the subject while supporting your analysis by argument and evidence. Choosing a subject you feel comfortable with and show interest in will make your research more enjoyable-not long and dull. It will also enable you to now find a thesis. Professor Richard Delgado suggests that you find one new point, one new insight, one new way of looking at a piece of law, and organize your entire article around that. One insight from another discipline, one application of single logic to a problem where it has never been made before is all you need.# Judicial opinions must be examined with a critical eye. You must analyze the way the writer looks at the law, as well as read for inconsistency and rhetoric. By doing so, your thesis will be, as it should be, an original and supportable proposition about the subject. Once you have your thesis it is time to gather information and assimilate it. Without doubt, you will spend numerous hours reading, note taking, browsing and skimming; deciding which materials are relevant. It is very important to be thorough and to involve current trends. Assimilating information or making the information your own is critical to your research. This will give you a greater understanding of your research and aid in setting your paper apart from others. Writing a draft can be difficult. Your thoughts and notes may be anything but orderly. An outline is an excellent way to arrange ideas and place information in schemes that will work for you. If you are dealing with case law: case charts, cluster diagrams and issue trees can be invaluable. Case charts list cases and allows you to organize issues by case. Cluster diagrams, on the other hand, include ideas and details with lines attaching details to the main idea. Issue trees begin with a primary idea and work down the tree to sub points.# These trees and diagrams may be revised easily into outlines. The actual writing can begin at any part, not necessarily the beginning. Some writers even begin with the conclusion. It is important to write in an order of ease. You may find something that would work perfectly in an area of your paper other than where you are. Feel free to move around. Do not be bothered with polishing and fine-tuning your work.