Thinking and Writing about Law


Book Description

"While Thinking and Writing About Law is primarily geared toward law students, it should be accessible for anyone who wants to improve their abilities in legal analysis and communication. Written in an approachable, no-nonsense style, the book is divided into two parts. The first part guides readers toward an understanding of legal analysis in our common-law system. Properly conceptualizing our system of law is the most fundamental-and overlooked-component in the process of legal analysis. To that end, the book walks the reader step-by-step through the analytical process and then reinforces the reader's understanding by introducing a novel technique for visualizing legal analysis. The second part guides readers toward successful communicating their analyses to both inform and persuade. It draws upon the author's experiences as both a legal writing professor and a supreme court justice to bring a distinctive blend of academic expertise and judicial practicality to the subject"--




Thinking Like a Writer


Book Description




Thinking Like a Lawyer


Book Description

This primer on legal reasoning is aimed at law students and upper-level undergraduates. But it is also an original exposition of basic legal concepts that scholars and lawyers will find stimulating. It covers such topics as rules, precedent, authority, analogical reasoning, the common law, statutory interpretation, legal realism, judicial opinions, legal facts, and burden of proof. In addressing the question whether legal reasoning is distinctive, Frederick Schauer emphasizes the formality and rule-dependence of law. When taking the words of a statute seriously, when following a rule even when it does not produce the best result, when treating the fact of a past decision as a reason for making the same decision again, or when relying on authoritative sources, the law embodies values other than simply that of making the best decision for the particular occasion or dispute. In thus pursuing goals of stability, predictability, and constraint on the idiosyncrasies of individual decision-makers, the law employs forms of reasoning that may not be unique to it but are far more dominant in legal decision-making than elsewhere. Schauer’s analysis of what makes legal reasoning special will be a valuable guide for students while also presenting a challenge to a wide range of current academic theories.




Thinking Like a Writer


Book Description

This is a different kind of book about legal writing. It assumes its readers are good writers who have already absorbed most of the usual advice about legal writing. But they may lack the intellectual framework for 'thinking like a writer' with the same incisiveness with which they think like a lawyer. This book provides that framework. It focuses on the underlying principles for communicating complicated information clearly and for establishing your credibility with demanding audiences. As a result, it helps to transform good writers into first-rate ones, and to make them far more efficient and powerful editors of their own writing and of others' drafts. Its unique approach will benefit supervising lawyers who do more editing than writing, as well as lawyers who do their own drafting.




Thinking Critically About Law


Book Description

So you’ve arrived at university, you’ve read the course handbook and you’re ready to learn the law. But is knowing the law enough to get you the very best marks? And what do your lecturers mean when they say you need to develop critical and analytical skills? When is it right to put your own views forward? What are examiners looking for when they give feedback to say that your work is too descriptive? This book explores what it means to think critically and offers practical tips and advice for students to develop the process, skill and ability of thinking critically while studying law. The book investigates the big questions such as: What is law? and What is ‘thinking critically’? How can I use critical thinking to get better grades in assessments? What is the role of critical thinking in the work place? These questions and more are explored in Thinking Critically About Law. Whether you have limited prior experience of critical thinking or are looking to improve your performance in assessments, this book is the ideal tool to help you enhance your capacity to question, challenge, reflect and problematize what you learn about the law throughout your studies and beyond.




Applied Critical Thinking & Legal Analysis


Book Description

To view a sample of the Case File, Assessments, and Materials ("CAM") Supplement, click here. The full 302-page supplement, along with a Dropbox folder of working spreadsheets and other classroom materials, is available to professors upon adoption of this book. ACTLA is a comprehensive research-based curriculum designed to optimize students' legal learning and problem-solving skills for improved educational outcomes. Consisting of a student text, a supplement containing all required case files, assessments, and materials, and a teacher's manual, ACTLA provides a turn-key solution that allows any school, regardless of budget or staffing, to leverage limited resources for greater student success. ACTLA is designed for flexibility, and can be delivered as a full course, a series of workshops, or one-on-one study to best suit the unique needs of any institution or student population. If desired, ACTLA can easily be integrated into any doctrinal course. The innovative ACTLA curriculum, backed by nearly a decade of intensive educational research, development, delivery, and assessment, directly addresses the most pressing learning needs of today's students. ACTLA helps students strengthen their skills in critical reading, writing, and analytical thinking, while building the habits of mind associated with top success in the study and practice of law. Students in ACTLA internalize a reliable, systematic approach to legal learning and problem-solving while working through three progressively sophisticated levels of legal problems, assessing their progress, and refining their approach each step of the way. The problem-based curriculum includes an arsenal of research-based tools and strategies to strengthen key legal learning skills, including critical reading, rule formation, synthesis, analysis, exam-taking, self-assessment, and self-regulation. ACTLA emphasizes formative assessment and includes specialized tools to measure learning outcomes, which may assist law schools in complying with the ABA pedagogy mandate.




Thinking Like a Writer


Book Description

Thinking Like a Writer: A Lawyer's Guide to Effective Writing and Editing gives you the specialized knowledge and techniques to draft clear and compelling legal documents, no matter how complicated the issues involved.




Logic for Lawyers


Book Description

This book tackles the basics of legal reasoning in twelve chapters, including the principles of classic logic, deductive and inductive reasoning, application of the Socratic method to legal reasoning, and formal and material fallacies.




Legal Writing from the Ground Up


Book Description

Legal Writing from the Ground Up: Process, Principles, and Possibilities breaks down legal writing into a step-by-step process but avoids a one-size-fits-all approach. This book helps legal writing professors balance the need to encourage original and strategic thinking while providing guidance for students as they develop their legal writing skills. Tracy Turner writes with today s generation of students in mind, and helps to arm student with specific and powerful tools without shackling their creativity. Key Features Multiple adaptations of the Issue, Rule, Application, and Conclusion (IRAC) paradigm that reflect a different approaches to problem solving Different strategic considerations in selecting the right analytical model for a particular case Consistent emphasis on the foundations of legal analysis Proven-effective techniques for continuing skill development Visual aids that are transferable learning tools, such as charts and diagrams Critical reading techniques, clearly explained Visually navigable pages and the author s direct and engaging writing style An intuitively logical organization of content, that easily adapts to myriad approaches to teaching and study