legal writing syllabus

7/30/2019 legal writing syllabus

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Legal Analysis, Research, and Writing I

Fall 2012 3

Professor John F. Murphy

[email protected]

[Quick links: TWEN | Assignment due dates | Reading assignments]

Online, always up-to-date version of this syllabus: http://goo.gl/NoqJz

Syllabus

Course Goals

This is the first of two required courses in legal analysis, research, and writing (LARW).

Students will learn to

Read and brief judicial opinions;

Extract, synthesize, and apply rules of law from opinions and statutes; Use basic research techniques to find opinions and statutes;

Write basic citations to opinions and statutes;

Understand and apply basic grammar rules and advanced legal grammar rules;

Organize legal writing around the CREAC model; and

Write an objective, predictive office memorandum.

Class Meetings

3: T/Th 10:30-11:45 p.m. in room 202.

Contact Information

Professor: John F. Murphy

Office: 175 (east end of the east-west faculty hallway)

Phone: 817-212-3936 (office). Note: I only check voicemail when Im in the office, so

email is a better bet to reach me quickly.

Email: [email protected]. Email is the best way to reach me. I try to answer

all email within twenty-four hours. If you do not have an answer from me after

twenty-four hours, please remind me.

Office Hours

T/Th 1:00-3:30 p.m.

By appointment, which I will grant freely. Drop-ins welcome.
mailto:[email protected]://lawschool.westlaw.com/manage/homepage.aspx?courseid=135577http://goo.gl/NoqJzhttp://goo.gl/NoqJzhttp://goo.gl/NoqJzhttp://goo.gl/NoqJzhttp://goo.gl/NoqJzhttp://goo.gl/NoqJzhttp://goo.gl/NoqJzhttp://goo.gl/NoqJzhttp://lawschool.westlaw.com/manage/homepage.aspx?courseid=135577http://lawschool.westlaw.com/manage/homepage.aspx?courseid=135577mailto:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]:[email protected]


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Teaching Assistant

Your LARW section has a teaching assistant (TA)a student who performed exceptionally

well in my class last year. Your TA is here primarily to help you with citation questions, not

writing questions. Your TA will hold weekly office hours in the library to answer your citation

questions. Following is the contact information for your TA:

Section 3: Matt Fronda, [email protected]

Library hours: TBD

Required Texts

Richard K. Neumann Jr. & Sheila Simon, Legal Writing 2d ed. (Aspen/Wolters Kluwer

2011);

The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation (Columbia Law Rev. Assn, et al. eds., 19th

ed. 2009) (Bluebook);

Manual on Usage & Style (Tex. Law Rev. Assn, 12th ed. 2008) (theMOUSe);

Tracy McGaugh & Christine Hurt, Interactive Citation Workbook forThe Bluebook: A

Uniform System of Citation (2012 ed.) (ICW);

Amy E. Sloan, Basic Legal Research (5th ed.) (Wolters Kluwer);

Amy E. Sloan, Basic Legal Research Workbook(4th ed.) (Wolters Kluwer).

Class Attendance and Preparation

Class attendance is required. Students must sign the class roster to be counted present.

Students arriving more than five minutes late will be counted absent. Students who leave theclassroom without permission before dismissal will be counted absent. Excessive absences

will result in the students involuntary removal from this class and (because this is a required

lockstep class) law school. Consult the Student Programs, Policies, & Procedures manual for

information regarding the maximum allowable absences.

Read your assignments before class. If the assigned pages include exercises, be prepared to

discuss the exercises in class. Some of the exercises may be assigned as writing exercises.

Class participation is worth 5% of your total grade. Participation is not the same as attendance;

to earn participation points, students must speak out in class, e.g., by asking or answering

questions.

Homework Policy; Penalties for Late Submissions

Students must complete all assigned homework. A student who does not submit all assigned

homeworkeven if the homework is latewill receive an F.


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Every homework assignment has a submission deadline. Deadlines are strictly enforced. Failure

to submit assignments before the deadline triggers the following penalties:

Major writing assignments (memos I & II): Assignments submitted up to one hour

after the deadline incur a 3.3-point penalty (out of the 100 points possible for the

assignment); assignments submitted one to two hours late incur a 6.7-point penalty;

assignments submitted more than two hours late receive zero points.

Interactive Citation Workbook (ICW) assignments: Each assignment submitted after

the deadline incurs a five-point deduction (out of the 100 possible points) from the

students score on the end-of-semester citation exam.

Research and other assignments: Research assignments submitted up to one day late

incur a ten-point penalty (out of the possible 100 points for each assignment). Those

submitted one to two days late incur a twenty-point penalty. Those submitted more

than two days late receive no credit.

Interactive Citation Workbook (ICW) Assignments

Citation exercise assignments are assigned from the Interactive Citation Workbook. For each

exercise, you must score at least 70%. If you score less then 70% on an exercise, you must meet

with your TA and redo the exercises within seven days of the exercises due date. For each

exercise that you score less than 70% and fail to meet with your teaching assistant and/or redo

the assignment, five points will be subtracted from the citation exam portion of your grade. Youmust work alone on the citation exercises. You must make a good faith effort on all exercises.

You must complete all assigned ICW exercises on or before December 10, 2012, or else you will

fail the course.

Grades

The following components comprise students final grades in this course:

Memo 1: 25%

Memo 2: 45%

In-Class Citation Exam: 10%

Research Assignments: 2% each (10% total)

Class Participation: 5%

Other Assignments: 5%


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Electronic-Device and Laptop-Computer Policy

The use of cell phones during class is prohibited. Use includes but is not limited to voice,

texting, and email. Students who violate this prohibition may be required to leave class and

receive an absent for the day.

I permit the use of laptop computers for note-taking; all other uses during class are prohibited,

including email, instant messaging, and web browsing. You may not connect your computer

to the Internet during class unless I specifically instruct you to do so. The TAs will monitor

computer use. Violators will be required to turn off their laptops and will be marked absent

for the day. I reserve the right to prohibit laptops altogether if students abuse the laptop-use

policy.

Law-school Disability Policy

Texas Wesleyan School of Law adheres to a disability policy that is in keeping with relevant

federal law. The law school will provide appropriate accommodation as determined by the

Assistant Dean of Student Affairs, Rosalind Jeffers, in consultation with the Director of theCounseling Center, Dr. Michael Ellison. Students must notify Dean Jeffers of any permanent or

temporary disabilities and must provide documentation regarding those disabilities prior to the

granting of an accommodation. Due to the law schools policy of testing anonymity, students

should not discuss their disabilities with professors. For assistance, students should consult with

Dean Jeffers.


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List of Major Assignments

I may assign additional homework during the semester; I will announce the due date for an

additional assignment in class and post it on TWEN. Hyperlinks point to the TWEN drop box for

that assignment.

Due Date Assignment

8/21 (T) Writing diagnostic

8/30 (Th) Sloan 1.1; library audio tour; ICW 1

9/4 (T) Dan Devers-narcolepsy analysis due 10:00 am via TWEN


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Schedule and Reading Assignments

I expect every student to complete the assigned readings before the first class of the week for

which the reading is assigned. Much of the reading is self-explanatory; I may not discuss it in

class, but I do expect you to have mastered the material in the various books.

I may add to or change the reading assignments. I will announce changes in class and on TWEN.

The online version of this document will always be up-to-date.

Key to abbreviations: LW=Legal Writing; BB=Bluebook; MOUS=MOUS; ICW=ICW

Week Class Dates Topics Readings

0 8/16-17 Orientation: intro to

legal writing

Syllabus; LW ch. 1, 2; Romantz ch. 1-3

1 8/21, 8/23 Federal cases; intro to

citations; intro to ICW

LW 5-6; BB: scan TOC, blue pages, T6; ICW

1

2 8/28, 8/30 State cases; policy;

LSAT diagnostic review

LW 3, 7, 16

legal writing syllabus

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