Paper Topic Development: International: Academic Legal Writing

Contents: What in the world should I write about? -- How do I find out what has been said and who has said it? -- How do I know this is worth talking more about? -- Do I really have to read everything that's out there? -- How do I use all this information? -- Putting pen to paper.

The authors of this guide are former BLS faculty. They advised many BLS students who were developing papers and articles. There are three copies in the Reserve collection & one circulating copy in the Main collection.
Contents: Introduction: scholarly writing in law school -- Exploration: choosing and narrowing a topic -- Inspiration: finding and developing a thesis -- The mostly research stage -- The writing process: getting it down on paper -- The writing process: revising and polishing -- Footnotes and the ethical use of borrowed materials -- Writing with care -- Writing with style -- The law review process: evaluating and editing the work of others -- Getting mileage: winning awards, publishing your work, and joining the conversation.

Contents: Finding what to write about (the claim) -- Test suites : making prescriptive claims more sound -- Writing strategy -- Writing the introduction -- Writing the "background" section -- Writing the proof of the claim -- The conclusion and after the conclusion -- Finishing the first draft, and the zeroth draft -- Tips on researching -- Editing : general principles -- Editing : getting help from your faculty advisor -- Writing : logical problems to watch for -- Writing : paragraph-level problems to watch for -- Writing : sentence/clause problems to watch for -- Writing : word/phrase problems to watch for -- Writing : rhetorical problems to watch for -- Editing exercises -- Using evidence correctly -- Writing and researching : timeline and summary -- A sample highly successful student article -- Turning practical work into articles -- Writing seminar term papers -- Cite-checking others' articles -- Publishing and publicizing -- Entering writing competitions -- Getting on law review -- Academic ethics.