Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2003

Publication Source

The Second Draft: Bulletin of the Legal Writing Institute

Abstract

We now know that many experienced lawyers think newly-minted attorneys “do not write well.”1 Law professors complain that students do not write well when they enter law school. Undergraduate professors say their students do not write well when they enter college. I suspect the complaint continues on down the ladder of K- 12 education. Are students learning to write in college, high school, and elementary school? To shed light on the question, I surveyed students in my legal writing class about their writing experience. I wanted to know what kind of writers I was teaching. Had they been taught fundamental writing skills? How much writing had they done? To what extent was writing a component of their classes? What kind of and how much feedback had they received? The survey form I created was three pages long, with room for responses, and took about 15 minutes to complete. This article shows what the survey taught me.

Inclusive pages

6

Document Version

Published Version

Comments

Article was originally published in "The Second Draft: Bulletin of the Legal Writing Institute." It is provided here with the permission of the Legal Writing Institute; permission documentation is on file.

Publisher

Legal Writing Institute

Volume

18

Issue

1

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Law Commons

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