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Legal Research & Writing Support
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This page lists curated resources for legal research and writing support. Students may click the '
' information icon located at the end of an item's title for a more detailed description of the item's contents.
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Examples and Explanations
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The Fourth Edition of Examples & Explanations: Legal Writing explains what many professors consider to be effective writing, following the organization of typical first-year legal writing courses, and provides concrete examples for students to test their understanding of key legal writing concepts. Each chapter includes a checklist that can be easily transformed into a grading grid as well as chapter-by-chapter vocabulary that integrates your classroom instruction with these examples. This book--whether the entire book, selected chapters, or subsets of chapters--can accompany any legal writing textbook or materials you provide for your students. A favorite classroom prep tool of successful students that is often recommended by professors, the Examples& Explanations series has been ranked the most popular study aid among law students because it is equally as helpful from the first day of class through the final exam. New to the Fourth Edition: New chapters on common law and on writing conclusion sections in persuasive documents Revised and updated with legal writing professors in mind, including revisions that work whether assigning single chapters or the entire book New common law assignments with many added examples and explanations throughout the book Professors and students will benefit from: Understanding how the writing students do in law school (and law practice) differs from what they did in college Professors knowing the right way to use examples, although they may hesitate to give examples Learning how to practice revising and rewriting--skills that are necessary to all good writing Demonstrations of how to self-evaluate, self-explain, and self-test Having the tools to continue to learn about legal writing after formal instruction ends
Call Number: Aspen Learning Library OnlineISBN: 9781543858754Publication Date: 2023-11-29 -
A Short and Happy Guide to Legal Writing
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Like the inaugural edition, this second edition of A Short & Happy Guide to Legal Writing provides a full concept of the history and practice of legal writing in the briefest of formats. The author recounts the theory of written laws from our British roots to the present American legal court system. The guide then transitions into teaching the framework and construction for written legal communication, explaining the underlying theory of citation, how to read precedent opinions. Complete with samples of case briefing, a useful paradigm for organizing predictive and persuasive analyses, complete interoffice and e-memos, updated, annotated examples of real appellate briefs, and more, this book packs a big punch in a small footprint.
Call Number: West Academic OnlineISBN: 9798887863474Publication Date: 2024-08-15 -
Mastering Legal Analysis and Drafting
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Mastering Legal Analysis and Drafting seeks to emphasize the fundamental structure and methods of legal drafting, grounded in the surprisingly few elemental rules and techniques of legal analysis. It is designed to (1) help the legal drafters identify those elemental rules and techniques, and (2) show how they are used to prepare effective legal writing in different formats, most of which share common elements and structures.
The book begins with a discussion of legal analysis, followed by a discussion of general drafting principles and rules, and then proceeds to apply these concepts to specific forms of legal writing, including client letters, demand letters, research memoranda, motions and supporting documents, appellate briefs, contracts and instruments, and legislation. It closes with a chapter on "writing to build a record" that reprises the other chapters and highlights the key concepts.
The second edition has been updated to reflect recent developments in legal practice, research, citation, and technology.
Call Number: LexisNexis Digital Library OnlineISBN: 9781531029203Publication Date: 05/29/2024 -
Legal Writing and Analysis in a Nutshell
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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.
Call Number: West Academic OnlineISBN: 9781634602815Publication Date: 2017-02-17 -
Legal Writing Style
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Legal Writing Style promotes the art of good writing by teaching students and practitioners the tools to make their prose clear, precise, simple, and forceful. With examples of what works and what doesn't, this short but comprehensive treatise provides an invaluable resource for recasting writing for maximum impact and ultimate success.
Call Number: West Academic OnlineISBN: 9781634592963Publication Date: 2018-03-28 -
Skills and Values: Lawyering Process
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This legal writing text is unlike others in that it is a hybrid text, with a smaller portion in print and the rest available to professors as supplemetary materials. This offers several advantages over other books. First, it is somewhat less expensive than a traditional text, and with the significant burden of textbook costs on our students, this is an advantage they appreciate. Second, it is based on the belief that students today need to read less and do more, and be active, rather than passive, in their learning. It is no secret to educators that our students are changing, with shorter attention spans and an increased facility with technology. Rather than fight it, this text seeks to leverage that reality. Third, students who are learning this material for the first time perhaps do not need to read large amounts of information about the writing process. As they are first learning how to do, they need to do, rather than spend a lot of time reading about it. Finally, this textbook is designed for flexible use because each professor has his or her own way of teaching the course and the larger texts may not be fully in sync with how the professor treats the material. So a central idea behind this textbook is that it enables professors to assign limited amounts of reading and then to use the supporting materials in ways that suit their individual approaches to the course, thus making it flexible and highly customizable by the adopting professor.
Call Number: LexisNexis Digital Library OnlineISBN: 9781531008161Publication Date: 2017-08-01
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Principles of Legal Research
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Principles of Legal Research provides comprehensive yet concise coverage of research methods in both online and printed resources. It has been thoroughly updated to explain the latest features of the major legal research platforms as well as dozens of other free and subscription websites. In this expanded and reorganized edition, an introductory survey of research strategies is followed by discussion of major secondary sources, treatment of the sources of U.S. law created by each branch of government, chapters on specialized resources for litigation and transactional practice, and an overview of international and foreign law. Other new features include a deeper look at search algorithms and executive branch lawmaking. Sample illustrations are included throughout, and an appendix lists hundreds of major treatises and topical services by subject.
Call Number: West Academic OnlineISBN: 9781640208056Publication Date: 2020-08-24 -
Long's a Short and Happy Guide to Advanced Legal Research, 2d
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Legal research can be costly for students and practitioners in two ways: time and money. A Short & Happy Guide to Advanced Legal Research, 2nd identifies available free and fee-based legal research options as good, cheap and/or fast. This book compares free and fee-based legal research resources for each stage of civil litigation, including the initial case assessment; discovery and investigation resources to find information on judges, attorneys, experts, and companies; and resources to find pleadings, motions, and briefs for pretrial action. Although this book is designed for law students taking an Advanced Legal Research course with unlimited access to Bloomberg Law, Lexis+, and Westlaw Edge, it is also a valuable reference for anyone who graduated from law school prior to 2019, interested in learning about the new litigation analytics and artificial intelligence features.Ann Walsh Long is the Head of Research & Digital Collections/Associate Professor of Law at the Lincoln Memorial University School of Law and teaches Legal Research, Advanced Legal Research, and Competitive Intelligence. Ann also worked at the Environmental Protection Agency's Headquarters Library and in four "Big Law" firms. As a former law firm librarian, Ann taught hundreds of summer and new associates how to conduct cost-effective legal research, and advised firms on how best to recover those costs from clients. This book may also serve as a valuable reference when renegotiating your next legal research license and offers guidance on evaluating content to add to your flat-rate contract that will lead to a more cost-effective practice.
Call Number: West Academic OnlineISBN: 9781684675456Publication Date: 2021-11-08 -
Legal Research in a Nutshell
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Finding and using legal resources effectively is an essential skill for lawyers. This comprehensive but succinct guide covers research procedures using major online services, free Internet resources, and library materials. The most heavily used commercial databases and authoritative, free online sources are discussed and placed in context for effective and productive use in research. Discussion includes coverage of primary and secondary legal resources, as well as legislative history, administrative law, specialized and interdisciplinary resources, and research in international and comparative law. Appendices list state research guides and leading treatises by subject.
Call Number: West Academic OnlineISBN: 9798887865782Publication Date: 2024-05-30 -
Honigsberg and Ho's Gilbert Law Summary on Legal Research, Writing and Analysis, 14th
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This outline covers court systems, precedent, case reporting system (including regional and state reporters, citations, and case findings), statutes, constitutions, administrative agencies (including regulations), legislative history, and secondary sources (including treatises, law reviews, digests, and restatements). The outline also discusses Shepard's Citations and KeyCite, as well as headnotes and the West Key Number System.An introduction to the evolving role of artificial intelligence in legal research has been added, along with updates on computerized legal research, including Westlaw and Lexis. This edition also contains chapters on reading and understanding a case (including briefing a case), basic guidelines for legal writing, organizing your research, writing a memorandum of law, writing a brief, and writing an opinion or client letter.
Call Number: West Academic OnlineISBN: 9798887863856Publication Date: 2024-07-12 -
Legal Research
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Examples & Explanations: Legal Research is designed to meet the needs of law students who have come to expect that they will instantly receive answers to their questions. Rather than cataloging sources or outlining processes, this text starts where today's law students are when they realize they have a research problem. By that time, their research problem is not locating sources, but knowing what to do with them. The Legal Research E & E guides students through examples and explanations of the kinds of sources they've found, using the context of interesting and entertaining real-world problems. The text helps students determine which sources are the most useful for the current project and which not; it leads students to understand how one source affects and relates to the others; and--equally important--it shows students how to write about the sources they have found. Because this book covers the kinds of research projects faced not only by beginning law students but also by advanced students and even new lawyers, its value to its readers is long-lasting. Even experienced researchers will learn more about working with the difficult, as well as the easy, research questions that today are addressed by an array of sources.
Call Number: Aspen Learning Library OnlineISBN: 9781454867890Publication Date: 2016-11-09
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Legal Citation in a Nutshell
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Learning legal citation is one of the difficult (and sometimes admittedly annoying) tasks that students new to the law face. This book is designed to ease that task. It initially focuses on conventions that underlie all accepted forms and systems of legal citation. Building on that understanding and an explanation of the process of using citations in legal writing, the book then discusses and illustrates the particular rules of The Bluebook and the ALWD Citation Guide for citing cases, statutes, and all other major legal sources. Its unique appendices provide a useful reference resource to aid students in formulating citations.
Call Number: West Academic OnlineISBN: 9781647087487Publication Date: 2021-10-11
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Sum and Substance Audio on Legal Research
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In this 3.25 hour audio lecture, Professor Robert C. Berring will lead you step-by-step through every topic in legal research. The information and ideas you struggled with previously are now brought to life simply and succinctly. These audio lectures are time saving, convenient and effective.
Call Number: West Academic OnlinePublication Date: May 10th, 2016
A full list of all CALI lessons covering Legal Research is available in the Legal Research Index. Some of the popular topics are linked below. For access to CALI, stop by the Law Library Reference Desk during business hours.