Writing a Seminar Paper

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Writing a Seminar Paper

• Approaching the Topic and Claim, or
• How to Write an ULWR With a Purpose, Without
  Writing a Brief

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Why Write a Seminar Paper?

• Opportunity to publish, develop professional
  reputation
• Writing sample for job interviews, especially
  judicial clerkships
• Opportunity to specialize in topics of interest,
  to learn substantive law at a new level
• Self-fulfillment achieved from producing an
  independent product one of your last
  experiences in truly independent scholarly
  writing before you will be asked to be an advocate

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Publish Flourish

• 1. Ask your professor to provide your name to Jon
  Lutz, jlutz_at_law.fsu.edu, or Faye Jones,
  fejones_at_law.fsu.edu.
• 2. Well pass it along to Expresso and theyll
  send instructions.
• 3. Please contact Jon or Faye with questions or
  if you need assistance.

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Writing ContestsMake Some

• Contest Listings
• http//www.law.fsu.edu/current_students/writing_co
  mpetitions.asp
• http//legalwritingcompetitions.blogspot.com/
• http//law.richmond.edu/students/essay-catalog.htm
  l
• http//www.americanbar.org/groups/law_students/eve
  nts_competitions/wec.html

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Helpful Resources

• Scholarly Writing http//fsu.catalog.fcla.edu/per
  malink.jsp?23FS031025418
• Academic Legal Writing http//fsu.catalog.fcla.e
  du/permalink.jsp?23FS020078137
• Scholarly Writing for Law Studentshttp//fsu.cat
  alog.fcla.edu/permalink.jsp?23FS020665069

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Helpful Resources

• http//guides.law.fsu.edu/scholarlywriting

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Picking and Grounding a Topic

• Topic and the question asked (thesis) in a
  seminar paper is important to the research and
  writing process that will follow

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What is a Good Topic?

• Relates to the substance of the class
• Has some relevance to legal debates
• Has some legal, analytical or methodological
  substance
• Will be researchable

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What Is A Good Topic?

• Relates to the substance of the class
• Cyberlaw Seminar defined broadly to cover legal
  issues of the Internet, virtual life,
  Intellectual Property, and technology.
• Energy Law Seminar Is probably not the class
  for a paper on equal protection
• Get your professors approval!
• Has some relevance to legal debates
• Legal challenges to net neutrality regulation of
  virtual currencies
• Sustainability of the planet if fossil fuels are
  depleted is probably better written for an
  ecology class or an economics class.

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What Is A Good Topic?

• Has some legal, analytical or methodological
  substance
• Can you envision the paper drawing on legal
  doctrine, taking an analytical perspective
  (presenting/addressing arguments that would be
  appropriate to a law class), OR will it have an
  analytical approach (historical, philosophical,
  psychological, economic, empirical)?
• Will it be researchable?
• Are needed materials available in a language you
  can research in?
• TIP See a reference librarian for a
  consultation as early as possible!

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Research Guides
http//guides.law.fsu.edu/
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How Does Topic Relate to Research? Dont pick
your topic in a vacuum!

• Initially, it will be best to treat your topic as
  tentative, refining the topic along the way.
  This is your drop/add period.
• At this stage the topic will narrow your
  research, but not so much so that it hamstrings
  you to a very specific question.

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Researching the Paper Topic

• Make sure that you have seriously READ at least 5
  primary and secondary sources relating to your
  topic.
• N.B. Book is not a four-letter word!
• Start doing a pre-emption check. Resources to
  search(1) Legal Periodicals, (2) American Law
  Reports (ALR), (3) Treatises, hornbooks, and
  practice manuals, (4) Legal Encyclopedias,
  (5) Current casebooks,  (6) Working papers in
  SSRN, (7) Blogs websites, (8) Restatements
  model codes
• Cant find a resource or hitting a paywall? Ask
  a librarian!

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Researching the Paper Topic

• Refine your topic and settle in on a more precise
  specification. Drop/Add period is over.
• One last tip take good notes and be organized!
• Avoid plagiarism
• Avoid retracing your steps
• Create folders just for your topic research in
  WestlawNext
• Keep print research in a designated folder or
  binder

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The Next StepRelating the Topic to a Claim

• A claim a thesis
• Good legal scholarship makes
• 1) a claim that is
• 2) novel,
• 3) nonobvious,
• 4) useful,
• 5) sound and
• 6) seen by the reader to be nonobvious, useful
  and sound.

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The Claim, examples

1. Law X is unconstitutional because . . . .
2. The legislature ought to enact the following
   statute . . . .
3. Properly interpreted, this statute/regulation/trea
   ty means . . . .
4. This case/doctrine explains/contradicts this
   other case/doctrine because . . .

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The Claim, examples

• This law is likely to have the following side
  effects . . . . and therefore should be
  rejected or modified to say . . .
• Courts have interpreted the statute/regulation/tre
  aty in the following ways and therefore the
  statute/regulation/treaty should be amended as
  follows . . . .because . . .
• My empirical, historical, philosophical,
  economic, psychological, or religious
  perspective on this law shows the law is flawed
  and should be changed or not.

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Approaching the claim with modesty

• Develop your claim while you are still
  researching
• At this stage, treat the claim as a hypothesis
• Data (i.e., cases, secondary literature, etc.)
  may lead you to reject or modify the claim, but
  do not wed yourself to the claim against clear
  evidence that contradicts it
• Unless you can reject/distinguish/explain away
  that evidence in a sound manner

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Keeping an open mind

• Talk to faculty about your claim
• Modify by adding nuance factors, exceptions,
  etc.
• Leave open the possibility that you may need to
  substantially modify your claim during your
  writing process the other 50
• Distinguish the descriptive from the prescriptive
  parts of your claim

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• Once you select a topic and identify a claim,
  the writing process will not take care of itself.
  
• However, you will now be writing with a purpose,
  rather than writing in search of one.

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THE END

• Dont fall into the I work best under pressure
  trap!