The First-Year Law Students' Guide to Effective Legal Writing

This textbook will serve as a valuable supplement for students who are struggling with the intricacies and nuances of the drafting of legal documents. The book's primary focus is on the typical predictive memos and persuasive briefs that are fundamental documents produced by practicing attorneys.

The book covers the basic skills of legal writing in the use of the CREAC and C-RAC paradigms that are the source of initial confusion and difficulty for many beginning law students. In particular, the substantive organization of legal documents, the effective use of paragraphs, the proper identification of issues and rules, the value of fully formed headings and concisely stated rule statements, the importance of thorough research and accurate citations, and the importance of correct grammar and punctuation are explained in text and with examples.

The main thesis is drawn from the author's "White-Glove Inspection," which is a ten-step proofreading system that isolates each of the necessary writing skills to ensure the production of an error-free, reader-friendly legal document. Thus, every aspect of grammar and punctuation that can otherwise plague a legal writer is explained, from the identification of every punctuation mark to the grammatical parts of a sentence.

The First-Year Law Students' Guide to Effective Legal Writing also presents ways for students to understand the logic of legal reasoning with tools like the jigsaw puzzle of the law, the mirror-image approach, and the A=B=C conceptualization of the CREAC paradigm. Terms like "the next case" and "no spare parts" enliven the text and provide students with ways to appreciate the beauty of the perfectly written legal analysis.