Four Easy Pieces: Organization

It’s the beginning of another academic year, and therefore it’s a good time to discuss the mechanics of writing and research. These are topics I cover briefly with students who take seminar classes from me, but I thought they might be useful to a broader audience. In a series of a few posts, I’m going to cover three topics about writing — organization, paragraphs, and persuasion — and one about research: hitting the books.

  1. Organization

Lawyers, judges, clients — pretty much everyone who is not reading while sitting on a beach — are busy people. They have limited time. Very limited time. It’s crucial that you give them some sort of sense immediately (1) why you are writing to them, and (2) what your message is. This applies to memos, letters, briefs, complaints, law review articles, essay exams, letters to the editor, even (or most especially) emails. Business documents often do this with an “executive summary,” but most of the executive summaries I see are mealy-mouthed mush. Be clear and concise; time is most definitely not on your side. You do not want your reader to get to the second paragraph and be wondering, “Who is this idiot and what is he/she prattling on about?”

This means that you must get to the point immediately. A MEMO/BRIEF/EXAM IS NOT A MYSTERY NOVEL.

Continue ReadingFour Easy Pieces: Organization

Happy Third Blogday!

Three years ago today, we launched the Marquette Law School Faculty Blog.  With 1,648 posts, 2,560 comments, and 379,000 site visits, we are still going strong.

Although blog posts tend to be ephemeral by their nature, some have a more timeless quality.  In case you missed them the first time around, here are a handful of posts from our first couple of months that are still well worth reading today:

David Papke on the classic 1L film The Paper Chase;

Bruce Boyden on work-life balance and legal practice;

Judi McMullen on fear of sex offenders;

Lisa Mazzie on laptops in the classroom; and

Jessica Slavin on the law professor who influenced her the most.

Continue ReadingHappy Third Blogday!

A Plea for E.N.E.

One of the oldest maxims in writing is to never apologize for your work.  With that said, I do need to couch this article.  I stand by my premise 100%.  However, there are always exceptions to a rule.  One of my biggest influences in mediation is a former judge, and former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice.  I am not saying that a judge cannot mediate, but that you need to go in with your eyes open.

Too often when litigators are choosing a mediator (or even worse when a sitting judge is ordering mediation at a scheduling conference) the conversation goes something like, “So, should we use Judge X or Judge Y?”  What does being a former judge necessarily have to do with being a mediator, let alone a good mediator?

As the late great comedian Mitch Hedberg said,

When you’re in Hollywood and you’re a comedian, everybody wants you to do things besides comedy. They say, “OK, you’re a stand-up comedian — can you act? Can you write? Write us a script?” . . .  It’s as though if I were a cook and I worked [] to become a good cook, they said, “All right, you’re a cook — can you farm?”

I am certainly not the first to recognize this disturbing trend. 

Continue ReadingA Plea for E.N.E.