Subject Bibliography in Law: Legal Writing

This book seeks to explain the practical skills needed for print and online legal research and writing. It provides a current and comprehensive look at the topic, consolidating information on legal research and writing into one handy, easy-to-use resource. Written for both seasoned practitioners seeking to add the latest sources and techniques to their research arsenal, and for beginner law students who face a bewildering array of information, this book includes chapters on legal research and writing malpractice, the acquisition of research resources, international and foreign legal research, and knowledge management. In addition, it covers legal citation, the recovery of online legal research expenses, searching the new platforms of the major proprietary online legal databases, the increasing digitization of legal materials, and free legal research resources on the Internet, while also providing a list of over 1,300 leading Canadian legal treatises organized into forty-eight topics.

This book provides a ten-step guide to clear, precise, and effective legal writing and analysis for both law students and experienced lawyers. It gives the keys to writing legal memoranda and briefs, organizing analysis, crafting clear and concise sentences, using legal language accurately, using grammar and punctuation properly, writing persuasively using classical rhetorical techniques. The book describes a method for analyzing and improving individual writing style includes a sample analysis. It also includes new material on using plain English and new legal documents to illustrate effective writing techniques.

The Legal Writing Handbook, Seventh Edition offers an effective process approach to teaching legal writing. The authors take students through each of the necessary stages of the writing process, from pre-writing, drafting, and editing, to the final draft. The authors' step-by-step approach assures that students will master the writing skills they will need throughout their careers. The Legal Writing Handbook is seven books in one: Book 1 provides students with an introduction to the U.S. Legal System; Book 2 provides an introduction to legal research, with both an introduction to sources and to research strategies; Book 3 introduces students to the process of writing formal and informal memos and opinion letters; Book 4 introduces students to persuasive writing and oral advocacy; Book 5 is a guide to effective writing; Book 6 is a guide to correct writing; and Book 7 focuses on the needs of ESL writers. Key features: Chapters on reading and analyzing statutes and cases, mandatory and persuasive authority, and legal research Research portion has been re-written: There are now discrete chapters that describe primary sources (3), secondary sources (4), finding tools (5), citators (6), and on mandatory and persuasive authority (7) Step-by-step instruction on how to write formal memos, e-memos, and opinion letters Step-by-step instruction on how to write motion and appellate briefs. A new section on mastering the sentence structures used in legal writing within ESL chapter.

Legal Reasoning and Legal Writing teaches students how to organize and incorporate a legal argument into strong and cogent writing for a variety of applications in legal practice. This clear and coherent text has been updated to address the new skills required for modern law practice. While the Ninth Edition still includes the fundamental tools that has made it one of the best-selling legal writing texts, it has been updated to incorporate current and more sophisticated material for students wishing to take their advocacy skills to the next level. Designed for utility in a wide range of legal writing courses, the book covers multiple types of legal writing, including office memos, appellate and motion briefs, client letters, and email correspondence, as well as all aspects of legal reasoning from rule-based analysis to strategies of persuasion. It also covers other key skills such as oral reports to supervisors, appellate and motion argument, tips about the realities of online law practice and modern changes in language and style.

There is no doubt that students' proficiency in grammar and punctuation has declined over time, and this book is designed to help resolve that problem. What can be a serious and boring topic has been recast into an entertaining yet informative guide to punctuation, grammar, and other style issues. This book goes beyond the black letter rules that students must follow--it also tells the story behind those rules, making it relatable and more likely to stick with the student. Unlike other style guides, it uses caselaw to help convince students that these issues are important--even to the Supreme Court (and other courts) where winning or losing can turn on the placement of a comma. The book also is unique in that it strives to be humorous and includes cartoons for each chapter with the goal of having the concepts adhere to the students' brains. It is a well-rounded resource in that it goes beyond legal writing guides and incorporates information from other sources, giving a more holistic view of each issue. Although this book was designed primarily for law students, it has a much broader reach and could be a valuable resource to any legal writer--judges, law clerks, lawyers, paralegals, and people who are either learning about or involved in drafting contracts or legislation.

Lawyers do not have to be poets or novelists, but they must be able to construct prose that is clear, accurate, and concise. Law students (and some lawyers) often lack a sound understanding of how the English language operates in the functional way that is necessary to construct effective sentences. They also often lack understanding of key concepts of grammar and mechanics. Writing Sentences that Work: Essentials for Law Students targets these common deficiencies. Based on the author's more than 15 years of teaching experience and 30 years of law practice, the book focuses on the most common problems legal writers have, explaining why they are problems--i.e., why these errors interfere with the reader's immediate comprehension, thus impeding the lawyer's mission. The book then explains how to correct the problems and provides related practice exercises. Key concepts of grammar are explained to provide the conceptual understanding and the vocabulary necessary to comprehend the solutions to the problems. Instructors can use the book as an overall supplement to their legal writing texts, as a supplemental resource for particular students needing extra help, or as targeted help for specific problems manifested by most students in the class. It can also serve as a self-help resource for a student or lawyer seeking to improve.

This coursebook is designed for second semester Legal Writing II and Introduction to Advocacy courses, and for upper division courses in advanced legal writing that teach or reinforce lessons in advocacy and oral argument at the trial or appellate levels and in moot court competitions.The new edition was drafted during the 2020-2021 COVID-19 crisis with a special eye to offering a text and teaching materials that will be useful in and easily adaptable to a hybrid or completely online teaching environment. To meet that challenge, this edition has been integrated into the CasebookPlus(tm) platform, in which students have access to self-assessment quizzes for formative development of knowledge and skills, as well as access to leading study aids, an outline starter, and dictionary.In addition, a portfolio of samples of annotated written work product for each form of writing in the text is available. The samples include pretrial motions, motions to dismiss, motions for summary judgment, appellate writs, and appellate briefs.The authors have retained all the best features of the prior edition--an eBook of the text that is searchable and highly portable, and a visually friendly layout and design. The third edition has shortened the length but increased the number of samples of actual practitioner writing. The book continues to emphasize the conjunction of rhetoric and storytelling, advanced synthesis, and advanced argumentation techniques that extend the book's usefulness for training practice-ready lawyers.

Thinking Like a Writer provides practical advice to help lawyers strengthen their writing skills by “thinking like a writer” as effectively as they already think like a lawyer. The book highlights guiding principles for writing clearly about complicated material and establishing credibility with demanding readers, and then turns those principles into specific techniques that apply to many types of documents and audiences.

Guthrie’s Guide to Better Legal Writing will help you make your prose clear, correct, and compelling. The focus is on communicating more effectively in email, letters, memos, blog posts, client updates, and social media, but there are some pointers on contractual drafting and written advocacy as well. A bit of strategy, some grammar and spelling, and a lot of style. The second edition of Guthrie’s Guide incorporates significant new material based on reader queries and the author’s on-going review of the legal writing that crosses his desk and screen.

Designed as a desktop reference for legal writers, the sixth edition of this book adds new entries and updates current entries, provides reference material and guidance on improving one's legal writing, includes a large index with cross-references under each entry, and addresses common questions legal writers have. Covering issues small and large, it offers quick, reliable answers. New in this edition are entries on specific kinds of writing lawyers must complete, including the following: amicus briefs; pretrial briefs; appellate briefs; reply briefs; scholarly writing; legal recommendations; corporate documents; judicial opinions; PowerPoints; and informative documents, such as fact sheets, white papers, and newsletter articles.

The seventh edition of this manual continues to preserve the basic goal of the first edition, written by Professor Innes Christie in 1970, which was to assist first-year law students in becoming familiar with the research tools available to lawyers and to provide them with assistance in drafting documents.

The Aspen Handbook for Legal Writers is the concise reference students turn to again and again. Deborah E. Bouchoux's straightforward exposition, examples, and exercises cover every stage of the writing process. Practical tips and strategies clarify gray areas and shed light on important details that are frequently overlooked. Numerous examples throughout the text highlight the differences between ineffective and effective legal writing.

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. There are also chapters on footnote practice, plagiarism, law review editing, and publication. Appendixes provide a sample law review competition paper, answers to in-text exercises, and sample syllabi for scholarly writing courses.

The Comprehensive Guide to Legal Research, Writing & Analysis focuses on developing the required competencies emphasized by the Federation of Law Societies in legal research, writing, and analysis and using those skills in both law school and professional environments