Guides: Paper Topic Selection: International: Academic Legal Writing: BLS Videos

Academic Legal Writing: BLS Videos - How Do I Choose a Topic? Research? Develop a Thesis? Avoid Plagiarism?

Selecting Your Topic (prior presentation of Kathleen Darvil, BLS Associate Librarian for Public Services/Adjunct Professor)
- Associate Librarian Kathy Darvil discusses how to use legal news sources to help select a topic. Although the original audience for this video was students writing seminar papers, the research strategies/sources also are useful to students writing journal articles.
Researching Your Seminar Paper (prior presentation of Kathleen Darvil, BLS Associate Librarian for Public Services/Adjunct Professor)
- Prof. Darvil highlights selected BLS sources to aid research and development of an argument.
Thesis Development and Plagiarism Discussion (Sept. 6, 2024) - video discussion led by BLS faculty, available in BLSConnect under: Academics > Honors Societies and Journals > Writing Competition > Links & Resources

Note to students who are researching/writing papers for law student writing competitions: Review carefully the description of a competition's topic, student eligibility/authorship criteria, standards for evaluating submissions, format for submissions (including word minimum/maximum), rules and deadline.

Writing competition rules vary greatly. Follow a competition's rules to ensure consideration of your submission.
Many writing competitions' rules prohibit the use of all generative artificial intelligence, including large language models, to create any part of a contestant's written submission.