Welcome to Professor Michael Smith

Smith_michael_rThis fall, Marquette University Law School is fortunate to have Professor Michael R. Smith as a Robert E. Boden Visiting Professor of Law.  Professor Smith is visiting from the University of Wyoming College of Law, where he is the Winston S. Howard Distinguished Professor of Law and the Director of Legal Writing.  Professor Smith’s work in legal writing and written advocacy is nationally renowned.  He has published a book on persuasive legal writing entitled Advanced Legal Writing:  Theories and Strategies in Persuasive Writing (Aspen 2002).  This book has received such interest and acclaim that the release of the second edition was the impetus for a 2008 conference, A Dialogue About Persuasion in Legal Writing & Lawyering, which was held at Rutgers Law School-Camden. 

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“Be Wise: Revise,” Lisa A. Mazzie Advises in Latest Wisconsin Lawyer Magazine

lisaHatlenFor nearly a year, several of the Law School’s legal writing professors have been offering legal writing advice in a semi-regular column in the Wisconsin Lawyer magazine.  The latest such contribution is Lisa Mazzie’s “Be Wise: Revise,” which provides “guidelines for creating effective style through revising – guidelines on when to revise, how to revise, and when to quit.”  Her helpful advice highlights the importance of an objective attitude and critical eye during revision of one’s own work.

Professor Mazzie contributed another column, in June of this year, entitled, “Conciseness in Legal Writing.” Past legal writing columns from Marquette’s legal writing faculty also included Jill Koch Hayford’s November 2008 piece, “Style Books, Websites, and Podcasts:  A Lawyer’s Guide to the Guides,” as well her March 2009 advice, “Update Contract Language to Meet 21st Century Readers.” A column about split infinitives, “Dispelling Grammar Myths:  ‘To Split’ or ‘Not to Split’ the Infinitive,” by Rebecca K. Blemberg, appeared in the December 2008 issue.

The legal writing faculty will continue to write about legal writing for Wisconsin Lawyer magazine during the coming year.

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Stephen Jay Gould on Jim Bowie, Bill Buckner, and Storytelling

AlamoStephen Jay Gould, the eminent scientist and Harvard professor, was interested in human pattern recognition in stories.  He referred to the patterns that human minds want to create as “canonical stories.” His essay entitled “Jim Bowie’s Letter and Bill Buckner’s Legs”, which appears in I Have Landed:  The End of a Beginning in Natural History, describes two famous stories — one of Jim Bowie at the Alamo and the other of Red Sox first baseman Bill Buckner.    

Gould explains how both of these stories have often been patterned into the form of a canonical story.  In the Alamo story, the canon focuses on the Alamo defenders’ valor and honorable death.  William B. Travis, a young commander at the Alamo, wrote a letter describing the siege, which ends with the phrase “VICTORY OR DEATH.”  (60)  This famous letter is often cited in Alamo legend, but Gould points out that Bowie also wrote a letter, which fails to get mentioned because it does not fit with the canon.  (60)  He goes so far as to say Bowie’s letter is “hidden in plain” sight, ignored in a glass case at the Alamo museum.  (60-61)  Bowie thought that Santa Anna was willing to negotiate, and he wrote in Spanish to Santa Anna asking whether Santa Anna had called for a parley.  (61-62)  Santa Anna responded that he would have no mercy without unconditional surrender.  (62)

Gould then surmises that even with this response, had Bowie been less ill, “some honorable solution would eventually have emerged through private negotiations” because Santa Anna and Bowie were seasoned battle veterans.  (62-63) 

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