Academic Legal Writing

by Volokh, Eugene

• ISBN13: 9781587784774
• ISBN10: 1587784777
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-05-01
• Publisher: Foundation Pr

Table of Contents

ABOUT THE AUTHOR	v
FOREWORD, BY JUDGE ALEX KOZINSKI	1	(4)
INTRODUCTION	5	(2)
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS	7	(2)
I. LAW REVIEW ARTICLES AND STUDENT NOTES: THE BASICS
A. The Initial Step: Choosing a Claim	9	(22)
1. The Claim	9	(4)
a. Your basic thesis	9	(1)
b. The descriptive and the prescriptive parts of the thesis	10	(1)
c. Identifying a problem	11	(1)
d. Checking with your law school's faculty	12	(1)
e. Keeping an open mind	12	(1)
f. Identifying a tentative solution	12	(1)
2. Novelty	13	(1)
a. Adding to the body of professional knowledge	13	(1)
b. Making novelty through nuance	14	(1)
3. Nonobviousness	14	(1)
4. Utility	15	(4)
a. Focus on issues left open	15	(1)
b. Apply your argument to other jurisdictions	16	(1)
c. Incorporate prescriptive implications of your descriptive findings	16	(1)
d. Consider making a more politically feasible proposal	16	(1)
e. Make sure the argument doesn't unnecessarily alienate your audience	17	(2)
5. Soundness	19	(9)
a. Test suites	19	(1)
b. What you might find by testing your proposals	20	(2)
c. Developing the test suite	22	(1)
d. Particular problems to watch out for	23	(5)
i. Excessive mushiness	23	(2)
ii. Reliance on legal abstractions	25	(1)
iii. Procedural proposals that don't explain what substantive standards are to be applied	26	(2)
6. Selling This to Your Readers	28	(1)
7. Topics and Structures You Should Generally Avoid	28	(3)
a. Articles that show there's a problems but don't give a solution	28	(1)
b. Case notes	28	(1)
c. Single-state articles	29	(1)
d. Articles that just explain what the law is	29	(1)
e. Responses to other people's works	29	(1)
f. Topics that the Supreme Court or the Congress is likely to visit shortly	30	(1)
B. Organizing the Article	31	(13)
1. Write the Introduction	31	(3)
a. Show that there's a problem, and do this concretely	31	(1)
b. State the claim	31	(1)
c. Frame the issue	32	(1)
d. Do all this quickly and forcefully	33	(1)
2. Explain Background Facts and Legal Doctrines	34	(1)
3. Prove Your Claim	35	(3)
a. Show that your prescription is both doctrinally sound and good policy	35	(1)
b. Be concrete	35	(1)
c. Use the test suite	35	(1)
d. Confront the other side's arguments, but focus on your own	36	(1)
e. Turn the problems in your argument to your advantage	36	(2)
i. Improve your argument	36	(1)
ii. Refine your claim	37	(1)
iii. Acknowledge uncertainty	37	(1)
iv. Acknowledge costs	38	(1)
4. Make Your Article Richer: Connect to Broader Issues, Parallel Issues, and Subsidiary Issues	38	(5)
a. Go beyond the basic claim	38	(1)
b. Connections: Importing from broader debates	39	(1)
c. Connections: Exporting to broader debates	40	(1)
d. Connections: Importing from parallel areas	40	(1)
e. Connections: Exporting to parallel areas	41	(1)
f. Connections to subsidiary questions	41	(1)
g. A cautionary note	42	(1)
5. Rewrite the Introduction	43	(1)
6. The Conclusion	43	(1)
C. Converting Practical Work-Such as Law Firm Memos-Into Academic Articles	44	(4)
1. Extract	45	(1)
2. Deepen	45	(2)
a. Question existing law	46	(1)
b. Take counterarguments seriously	46	(1)
c. Reflect on your initial goal	47	(1)
3. Broaden	47	(1)
4. Connect	48	(1)
D. Budgeting Your Time	48	(1)
E. Deciding What to Set Aside	49	(2)
F. Choosing a Title	51	(4)
G. Summary	55	(4)
1. Choose a Topic	55	(1)
2. Make a Claim	55	(1)
3. Write a First Draft	56	(1)
4. Edit	56	(1)
5. Publish and Publicize	56	(1)
6. Think About Your Next Article	57	(2)
II. SEMINAR TERM PAPERS
A. Introduction: Comparing Seminar Term Papers and Academic Articles	59	(1)
1. Nonobviousness	59	(1)
2. Soundness	59	(1)
3. Writing and Structure	59	(1)
4. Utility	59	(1)
5. Novelty	60	(1)
B. Figuring Out What Your Instructor Expects	60	(1)
C. Finding a Topic	61	(1)
D. Budgeting Your Time	62	(1)
E. Turning the Paper into a Publishable Article	62	(1)
III. RESEARCH
A. Identifying Sample Cases and Incidents	63	(1)
B. Understanding the Law	64	(3)
1. Get the Big Picture	64	(1)
2. Get the Details	65	(1)
3. Find Other Works on the Topic (the Literature Search)	66	(1)
C. Knowing When to Shift from Research to Writing	67	(2)
IV. WRITING
A. There Are No Lazy Readers-Only Busy Readers -	69	(1)
B. Go Through Many Drafts	69	(1)
C. If You See No Red Marks on a Paragraph, Go over It Again	70	(1)
D. If You Need To Reread Something To Understand It, Rewrite It	70	(1)
E. Read the Draft With "New Eyes"	70	(2)
F. Finish the First Draft Quickly/Defeat Writer's Block by Skipping Around	72	(1)
G. React Effectively to Your Professor's (and Other Editors') Suggestions	72	(1)
H. Use Section Headings and a Tam e of Contents to Help Organize Your Thinking	73	(2)
I. Note Down All Your Ideas	75	(1)
J. Things to Look For: Logic	75	(4)
1. Categorical Assertions	75	(1)
2. Insistence on Perfection	75	(1)
3. False Alternatives	76	(1)
4. Missing Pieces	76	(1)
5. Criticisms That Could Apply to Everything	77	(1)
6. Metaphors	77	(1)
7. Undefined Terms	78	(1)
8. Undefended Assertions, and "Arguably"/"Raises Concerns"	79	(1)
K. Things to Look For: Writing	79	(14)
1. Paragraphs Lacking a Common Theme	79	(1)
2. Long Paragraphs	80	(1)
3. Inadequate Connections Between Paragraphs	80	(1)
4. Redundancy	81	(1)
5. Unnecessary Introductory Clauses	81	(1)
6. Other Unnecessary Phrases	82	(1)
7. Legalese/Bureaucratese	83	(2)
8. Unnecessary Abstractions	85	(1)
9. Passive Voice	86	(1)
10. Clichés	87	(1)
11. Figurative Phrases	87	(3)
12. Unduly Harsh Criticism	90	(1)
13. Personalized Criticism	91	(1)
14. Acronyms	91	(1)
15. Word Choice Errors	92	(1)
L. Proofreading	93	(1)
M. Editing: Two Exercises	93	(2)
V. USING EVIDENCE CORRECTLY
A. Read, Quote and Cite the Original Source	95	(9)
1. Legal Evidence	95	(3)
2. Historical, Economic, or Scientific Evidence	98	(1)
3. Newspapers	99	(3)
4. Transcripts	102	(1)
5. Web Sites	103	(1)
B. Check the Studies on Which You Rely	104	(1)
C. Compromise Wisely	105	(1)
D. Be Careful with the Terms You Use	106	(2)
1. Avoid False Synonyms	106	(1)
2. Include All Necessary Qualifiers	106	(1)
3. Use Precise Terms Rather Than Vague Ones	107	(1)
E. Try To Avoid Foreseeable Misunderstandings by Readers	108	(1)
F. Understand Your Source	109	(2)
G. Handle Survey Evidence Correctly	111	(10)
1. What Do Surveys Measure?	111	(1)
2. Errors in Generalizing from the Respondents to a Broader Group	112	(3)
3. Errors in Generalizing from the Question Being Asked	115	(3)
a. Surveys that ask a different question	115	(1)
b. Surveys that ask ambiguous questions	116	(1)
c. Get the text of the questionnaire	117	(1)
4. Errors Caused by Ignoring Information from the Same Survey	118	(1)
5. Respondents Giving Incorrect Answers to Pollsters	119	(1)
6. An Exercise	120	(1)
H. When Extrapolating, Be Explicit About Your Assumptions	121	(1)
I. Make Sure Your Comparisons Make Sense	122	(6)
1. Consider Alternative Explanations for Disparities	123	(1)
2. Make Sure That Cost/Benefit Comparisons Sensibly Quantify Costs and Benefits	124	(1)
3. Say How Many Cases the Comparison Is Based on, and How Small Changes in Selection May Change the Result	125	(3)
J. A Source-Checking Exercise	128	(2)
K. Summary	130	(3)
VI. CITE-CHECKING OTHERS' ARTICLES
A. Recommendations for Cite-Checkers	133	(2)
B. Recommendations for Law Review Editors	135	(2)
VII. PUBLISHING AND PUBLICIZING
A. Consider Publishing Outside Your School	137	(6)
1. You Can	137	(1)
2. You Should	137	(2)
3. Here's How	139	(4)
B. Working with Law Journal Editors	143	(7)
1. Have the Right Attitude About Edits	144	(2)
2. Insist on Seeing All Changes	146	(1)
3. Always Keep a Copy of Any Marked-Up Draft You Mail	147	(1)
4. Make Sure Your Earlier Changes Were Properly Entered	147	(1)
5. Use the Opportunity To Edit More Yourself	147	(1)
6. Keep the Copyright, but Grant Nonexclusive Rights	147	(3)
C. Publicizing the Article Before It's Published	150	(1)
D. Publicizing the Published Article	151	(2)
1. Reprints	151	(1)
2. Distributing the Article Electronically	152	(1)
E. Planning the Next Article	153	(2)
VIII. ACADEMIC ETHICS
A. Avoiding Plagiarism	155	(3)
1. The Two Harms of Plagiarism	155	(1)
2. Your Obligations	156	(1)
3. Copying from Yourself	157	(1)
B. Being Candid	158	(1)
C. Being Fair and Polite to Your Adversaries	158	(1)
D. Being Fair to the Law Review Editors Who Punish Your Article	159	(1)
E. Preserving Confidentiality	159	(1)
F. Treating Sources Fairly, and Complying with Human Subjects Protection Guidelines	160	(1)
G. Making Data Available	160	(5)
CONCLUSION 163
APPENDIX I: CLUMSY WORDS AND PHRASES
A. Needlessly Formal Words	165	(2)
1. Verbs	166	(1)
2. Nouns	167	(1)
3. Adjectives, Adverbs, Conjunctions, and Prepositions	167	(1)
B. Circumlocutions	167	(3)
1. Generally	168	(1)
2. Verbs Turned into Nouns or Adjectives	169	(1)
3. "The Fact That"	169	(1)
C. Redundancies	170	(1)
APPENDIX II: ANSWERS TO EXERCISES
A. Editing Exercises, p. 93	171	(5)
B. Understand Your Source, p. 109	176	(1)
C. USA Today Survey Report, p. 120	176	(2)
D. Drunk Driving Study, p. 122	178	(1)
E. Source-Checking Exercise, p. 128	179	(6)
1. The First Claim	180	(2)
2. The Second Claim	182
APPENDIX III: SAMPLE COVER LETTERS
A. For Sending an Article to Law Reviews	185	(1)
B. For Sending a Reprint to Potential Readers	186	(2)
C. For Sending a Reprint to Potential Readers on Whose Work You Substantially Rely	188	(3)
ENDNOTES	191	(6)
INDEX	197