The Complete Legal Writer by Alexa Z. Chew & Katie Rose Guest Pryal

Author:Alexa Z. Chew & Katie Rose Guest Pryal
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Carolina Academic Press
Published: 2016-01-02T00:00:00+00:00

III. Research to Write

One of the best ways to brainstorm and to build your argument-based outline is to incorporate research into your writing process. Incorporating research into your writing process means that you begin outlining as soon as you begin researching, and that you continue researching after you have written drafts your document, especially when you get stuck.

Often times, when a legal writer gets stuck — hits writer's block — more research is the cure. We call this solution “researching to write.” Researching to write simply means returning to the record, case law, and statutes to see if the writer's block you have encountered can be cured by finding a new way of looking at the facts and law (or by identifying new facts or new law). Most of the time, you'll find that it can.

Writing while you research will help you stay focused on the problem that you are tasked with solving. Your writing will create places to put the research you have conducted, and meanwhile, you will find holes in your writing where more research is needed. The writing and research processes are inextricable. Chapter 22, Research Authorities, provides detailed instruction in legal research.

These three brainstorming and outlining strategies — freewriting, outlining, and researching to write — can help you get started with most legal writing projects.

1. The law that we use for teaching analysis in this textbook is invented; this law includes statutes and cases. The jurisdiction — State of Rhode Hampshire — does not exist. Using an invented jurisdiction is an effective teaching tool. Although the jurisdiction and law do not exist, the techniques you are learning are applicable to real law in any jurisdiction.

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