Legal Research and Writing

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.

In addition to a standard first-year legal writing curriculum, most law schools now require upper-level students to write a sophisticated legal research paper on a topic of their choice. The third edition of Scholarly Writing: Ideas, Examples, and Execution offers a lifeline to students, guiding them through the process of constructing their legal research papers from start to finish.

This book teaches law students how to write scholarly papers for seminars, law reviews, and law review competitions. It helps novices and even more-experienced scholars to write papers with a minimum of anxiety. Employing a process theory of writing, the text first describes the enterprise of scholarly writing and then discusses techniques for brainstorming, researching, drafting, and revising for substance and style.

This book provides a comprehensive, reader-friendly approach to researching, writing, and publishing a variety of documents relevant to legal practice in today's world, including law journal articles, seminar papers and capstone projects, bar journal articles, policy papers, op-eds, social media posts and blogs, and even creative works.

The Legal Scholar's Guidebook demystifies academic legal writing by providing concrete advice on topic selection, research strategies, and analytical frameworks. It is an essential resource for any serious legal scholar. Nascent scholars will find it a reassuring guide through a demanding process and experienced scholars will find it a source of encouragement.