{"id":18367,"date":"2012-09-05T22:11:41","date_gmt":"2012-09-06T03:11:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/?p=18367"},"modified":"2012-09-05T22:15:54","modified_gmt":"2012-09-06T03:15:54","slug":"reading-and-briefing-cases-in-law-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/2012\/09\/reading-and-briefing-cases-in-law-school\/","title":{"rendered":"Reading and Briefing Cases in Law School"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>In my first semester of law school, a very smart friend came to visit me for a few days. I handed her a case from my legal writing problem set and asked her to read the case. She could barely make any of it out. I felt significantly better about myself, for I had been wondering if I had forgotten how to read.<\/p>\n

I think this feeling is common in the first few weeks or months of law school. Reading the law for the first time can be disorienting for several reasons, including the foreign terminology, the new structure of the cases, and the lack of context. Translating the written text into something that makes sense and then being able to communicate that material orally in class is a difficult skill to master for new law students.<\/p>\n

If reading and briefing cases are skills that a student would like to strengthen, I recommend Ruth Ann McKinney\u2019s book Reading Like a Lawyer: Time-Saving Strategies for Reading Law Like an Expert<\/em>. The book starts with the premise that being an \u201cexpert reader” is a pre-requisite to excelling in law school and in the practice of law. The book goes on to tackle both reading and briefing cases with concrete strategies for both.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

One strength of the book is that it provides context for a new law student. It explains, for instance, concepts like deductive reasoning (based on the classical syllogism and \u201cthe heart and soul of clear legal thinking,\u201d McKinney notes) and reasoning by analogy (comparing similarities to draw conclusions). McKinney gives a roadmap to a student of what the student is expected to do when studying the law.<\/p>\n

Another strength is that the book, although packed with useful and easy-to-implement strategies, is a short read. I also like that the book provides guidance on time management, which is important when considering the volume of reading required in law school.<\/p>\n

Finally, for me, as a legal writing professor, I especially appreciate McKinney\u2019s definitions of the major points a student must draw from a case. She defines what a holding is and how a holding differs from a court\u2019s reasoning. In legal writing, a student must be able to articulate the holding and the court\u2019s reasoning or rationale to explain the rules of law and to draw analogies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In my first semester of law school, a very smart friend came to visit me for a few days. I handed her a case from my legal writing problem set and asked her to read the case. She could barely make any of it out. I felt significantly better about myself, for I had been […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[42,122],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-legal-writing","category-public","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18367"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18367\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}