Academic Legal Writing: Law Review Articles, Student Notes, and Seminar Papers

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Summary: Volokh is a Genius
Review: Eugene Volokh is a genius--well, maybe not a genius--almost nobody is a genius--but he's pretty darn smart.

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Summary: A Must Read
Review: I highly recommend Professor Volokh's new book, Academic Legal Writing: Law Review Articles, Student Notes, and Seminar Papers.

As the title suggests, it focuses primarily on legal writing, especially for aspiring and current law school students. However, anyone who wants to improve his/her writing and critical thinking skills should read this book. The book--which is only 189 pages--abounds in smart advice on how to write better and avoid common errors such as wordiness, unduly harsh criticism, overly technical language, etc.

Speaking as someone who starts law school in a month and a half, I am glad I read this book. It gave me a nice view about what type of writing is expected in law school. And unlike some academic books, it is affordable and highly readable.

Volokh addresses every possible question that a pre-law student could have about academic legal writing--how to choose a topic, how to test its claim or hypothesis, how to research it, how to use evidence (i.e., cases, law review articles, statistics, surveys, etc) correctly, and how even to publish and market your work.

To take one example: Volokh advises that in the process of conducting research always check the original source. In other words, do not simply assume that a secondary source will correctly represent the original article or case. For example, even the most revered Courts (such as the Supreme Court of the United States) sometimes misstate facts, arguments, and holdings in cases.

I can personally attest to the soundness of this advice. I once cited an article by a political science professor of mine in a paper I wrote for him. I relied on a secondary source to summarize his main thesis. When my professor graded the paper, he circled in red ink the citation of his work and wrote, This is not the argument I made. Did you bother to read the article?

Again, this is a great book for anyone considering law school. It should be on every pre-law student's must-read list.

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Summary: Don't take the road without this map
Review: I teach undergraduates, many of whom want to be law students. Sometimes I help them get started on legal writing.

Since the day I read Volokh's book, I have not sent a student off to law school without it. Given the amount of writing that is required of any law student, and given the substantial career advantages to publishing, everyone should try.

Volokh is clear and very usefully organized for students who have to parse their time carefully. He includes insights about the practicalities of law review publishing and shopping an article that go far beyond anything available when I was a law student.

This book is also a great tool for graduate students in fields akin to law. To those students, refereed journals are the norm and law review publication is a mystery. This book is an excellent, readable way to make law reviews less mysterious.

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Summary: I only wish this had come out a year sooner
Review: If I'd read this book before joining a law journal, perhaps my Note would have turned out as something I would have wanted to publish, instead of the rambling mess I actually ended up writing.

Volokh breaks down the process of writing an academic legal paper and offers sound advice for every step of the way. He applies an analytical approach to testing a proposal, adapted from his software background, and advice for choosing a solid proposal based on patent law's tenets (novel, nonobvious, etc.). The book gives excellent guidance on organizing a paper and managing the writing process from outlining to revisions. The sections on correct use of evidence, with numerous examples, provide a useful guide both to ethically supporting an argument and to looking for holes to punch in arguments made by others. Volokh expands the relevance of his book by including chapters on seminar papers and reviewing others' legal writing. And it's not just for students: having edited a law journal and participated in selecting submissions, I believe that plenty of professors (and other scholarly authors who are well out of law school) would also benefit from his advice, because a lot of authors out there do not seem to have learned some of these lessons yet.

I edited a law journal the year this book was published: after reading it, I had us purchase a few copies of it for the journal office. We made self-study lesson plans based on it to help 2L members with their note-writing process, had all board members refer to it when evaluating the 2Ls' final products at the end of the year, and arranged a bulk purchase for any 2Ls who wanted to use it as a reference. Feedback I got from board members and 2Ls on the book was uniformly positive. And when I showed it to the other journal editors at my school, they all bought a few copies too. Volokh has even provided some helpful teaching aids on the book's web site, including Powerpoint slides and exercises.

Thanks for a fine resource, Professor.

Rating:
Summary: I only wish this had come out a year sooner
Review: If only I'd read this book before joining a law journal, perhaps my Note would have turned out as something I would actually want to publish, instead of the rambling mess I actually ended up writing.

Volokh breaks down the process of writing an academic legal paper and offers sound advice for every step of the way. He applies an analytical approach to testing a proposal, adapted from his software background, and advice for choosing a solid proposal based on patent law's tenets (novel, nonobvious, etc.). His chapters on correct use of evidence are a refreshing BS antidote, especially considering some of the excuses for "support" of arguments that I've seen in a frightening number of submitted articles. Volokh expands the relevance of his book by also including chapters on seminar papers and on reviewing others' legal writing.

I liked it so much that our law journal purchased a few copies of this book for the coming academic year: we're making self-study lesson plans based on it to help 2L members with their note-writing process, and I'll ask all board members to refer to it when evaluating the final products at the end of the year. When I showed it to the other journal editors at my school, they all bought a few copies too. Volokh has even provided some helpful teaching aids on the book's web site, including Powerpoint slides and exercises.

Thanks for a fine resource, Professor.

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Summary: Not Just for Law Students
Review: If you're writing a law review comment, Eugene Volokh's slim volume "Academic Legal Writing" is indispensible. However, anyone who wants to learn how to write clearly and how to cut the fat from their prose will benefit tremendously from the book as well. Especially good are the sections where Volokh takes you step-by-step through the editing process, turning a flabby piece of writing into economical, muscular prose. His appendix of words to avoid (eschew "eschew") is also excellent. So don't be fooled by the title. Good writing is good writing, in the legal academy and elsewhere. This is a book about good writing in general, and a terrific one at that.

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Summary: Every 1L should own a copy
Review: This book is one of the most useful tools you can buy to help you succeed in law school. Sure, there are plenty of study guides and study aids out there for law school - teaching you the ins-and-outs of proximate causation, useless stuff like the meaning of "possibility of reverter," and how to say if a statement is hearsay. But success in law school involves much more than getting good grades in Contracts, Property, or Evidence. The key to distinguish yourself in law school (and immediately after) is your writing ability: Are you on law review? Have you written a note/article worthy of being published? Do you have a stellar writing sample for that clerkship application? Until this book, there was not a practical guide teaching academic legal writing. Every 1L should buy this book and read it before they attempt to take a seminar class or write a law review note. It will make a difference.

My only complaint about Prof. Volokh's book is that it was not available until my last year of law school. Had it been published earlier, its lessons would have drastically improved my seminar papers and law review note. But if you're like me and no longer in law school, still check this book out. It isn't solely for law students. It is an extremely useful guide for new attorneys who hope to write publishable articles after law school.

To borrow from the "give a man a fish...teach a man to fish" cliché (and thus horribly violate a lesson of Chapter 4), Prof. Volokh teaches law students and lawyers to "fish" by showing them how to write their own scholarly works.