We have gotten the collection Classical Rhetoric & Contemporary Law: A Critical Reader over the finish line. An accessible text for scholars and students (#LawProfs, #argumentation, #LegalWriting, #TeamRhetoric)—and curious lawyers in #LawFedi. Introduces the complex relationship between ancient western thought and contemporary law and the long history of some rhetorical concepts and practices that advocates and judges are still using today (not always for the better). https://www.uapress.ua.edu/9780817361396/classical-rhetoric-and-contemporary-law/
@jacklerner It came up because I've recently been reading some briefs to Texas Supreme Court that were otherwise very well drafted, but that were inconsistent on this point. I think we're right, though 😉
@rhetoricked 100%, spell out the case names in the TOA, as if they were in a sentence. I don’t think this is up for debate? The TOA just looks terrible if you don’t do that.
2/2
Citation sentences interrupt text and should be short. Abbreviations are shorter but harder to parse for the reader. (Read two versions out loud, one fully abbreviated and one not, if you doubt me.). An abbreviation can also signal that a sentence IS a citation, allowing a skimmer to skim it. In the ToA, case names don't interrupt; the focus on brevity should therefore decrease and that on readability should increase. Thus, I would spell them out in as in R.B10.1.1(vi). Your thoughts?
2/2
Citation sentences interrupt text and should be short. Abbreviations are shorter but harder to parse for the reader. (Read two versions out loud, one fully abbreviated and one not, if you doubt me.). An abbreviation can also signal that a sentence IS a citation, allowing a skimmer to skim it. In the ToA, case names don't interrupt; the focus on brevity should therefore decrease and that on readability should increase. Thus, I would spell them out in as in R.B10.1.1(vi). Your thoughts?
#LegalWriting & #Bluebook gurus 1/2
In the table of authorities near the front of a brief to a court, as a general rule (assuming local rules do not provide otherwise), do you abbreviate the case names fully as in a citation sentence (R.B10.1.1(v)), or do you abbreviate only the words in (R.B10.1.1(vi)) as in a textual sentence, and why? My tentative thoughts next...
@rhetoricked I wish courts would also permit record citations to be treated as one word. I’ve seen folks create really ugly formats to try to get around this (eg, RApp@679). Once you start seeing these issues, you see them everywhere.
Word counts: It turns out that if you use a Bluebook-style ellipsis (nbs . nbs . nbs ., where "nbs" = non-breaking space), MS Word counts it as three words. If I'm certifying my word count to the court (or my law professor) may I deduct three from MS Word's count for each BB ellipsis? Should I clarify in the word-count certification that I have done so? #legalwriting #lawfedi
3/ Like all of Prof. Chew's work, it's a thoughtful and enjoyable read, if "enjoyable" is the right word for an article that addresses such a frustrating and rage-inducing reality. But you get prose like this: "To be blunt, I think the results of my study suck."
Prof. Chew concludes with some direct and actionable advice: "people who write about legal style should research harder."
Anyway, as they say, read the whole thing.
/fin
2/ Even if, like me, you are expecting the data to be bad, it's actually worse.
"[T]he proportion of female experts in legal writing books is only [1 in 7], much lower than the proportion of women in federal judgeships and tenured professorships. And lower even than the proportion of women giving Supreme Court oral arguments during the original run of Walker, Texas Ranger."
New from Alexa Chew: The Fraternity of Legal Style. https://www.alwd.org/lcr-archives/fall-2023-volume-20/750-the-fraternity-of-legal-style
Given the prevalence of women in the legal writing academy, you might think that women are well represented (or maybe just not terribly underrepresented) as legal writing experts.
You'd be wrong.
Prof. Chew takes a rigorous look at legal style books and finds: "white male writers writing about other white male writers who went to elite schools and held elite lawyering jobs and are probably dead."
1/
Hey, @TAMULawSchool students! Sign up for mindful movement & breath (secular form of yoga) during finals weeks. It's free for members of the law-school community. https://www.shriya.yoga/blog/mindful-movement-for-tamu-law-students-5ws-h
As @TAMULawSchool celebrates ten years of affiliation with @TAMU , our talented faculty, staff, and students celebrate as only they Ken. (Oh, and it was also Constitution Day). https://youtu.be/zzDIlMU3wz8?si=27X2SQue5fyUNyF7
I posted a video on Instagram about women in computing, and the misogynist trolls are out in force! But I've discovered that the best response to the (dozens of) comments from men I've received along the lines of "CS isn't toxic for women" or "no one is keeping women out of CS" is: "Oh it's so great to see a woman in CS who has had such a positive experience comment on my post!"
For sterner criticism from me and @StephenESachs, see here: https://reason.com/volokh/2020/10/30/citing-slavery-in-the-bluebook/
I don’t entirely agree with this article but it’s better than the current Bluebook’s approach and kudos for @djsziff for writing it.
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RT @djsziff
I'm happy to announce that my article in the @NCLRev Forum is now live in its final form: Citation, Slavery, and the Law as Choice: Thoughts on Bluebook Rule 10.7.1(d). Thanks to the student editors who made this possible! 1/
https://twitter.com/djsziff/status/1644103764490731520
(self-promotional) RT of @JLWIonline@twitter.com (tags added)
All students come to law school with rich #RhetoricalExperience, says @rhetoricked
of @TAMULawSchool
in "Centering Students' Rhetorical Knowledge." The essay describes how #PeerReview and #ClassroomWorkshopping can help develop a #CommunityOfInquiry: