The Next Frontier: Exploring the Substance of Legal Writing

26 Pages Posted: 4 Feb 2008

See all articles by Michael R. Smith

Michael R. Smith

University of Wyoming College of Law

Abstract

This volume represents another milestone for the Association of Legal Writing Directors (ALWD). Not only does this volume mark ALWD's official entry into periodical publishing, but also it marks the beginning of ALWD's latest effort to expand and improve the field of legal writing. More specifically, with the creation of this Journal, ALWD announces in dramatic fashion that it will take a lead role in the development and expansion of substantive legal writing doctrine. Since its inception in 1996, ALWD has diligently sought to improve legal writing as a discipline and as a profession . . . . Now, with the publication of this Journal, ALWD takes a fifth approach. The Mission of this Journal is very specific and unique. Briefly stated, "[t]he purpose of the Journal of the Association of Legal Writing Directors (J. ALWD) is to develop scholarship focusing on the substance of professional legal writing and to make that scholarship accessible and helpful to practitioners as well as to legal writing teachers." Rather than producing a journal on legal writing in general, ALWD has taken a bold move and has decided to dedicate this Journal to one specific genre of legal writing scholarship: scholarship that explores the substance of legal writing. This article examines the meaning and implications of this novel mission of the Journal.

Keywords: legal writing, scholarship, discipline, legal writing scholarship, professional legal writing

Suggested Citation

Smith, Michael R., The Next Frontier: Exploring the Substance of Legal Writing. Journal of the Association of Legal Writing Directors, Vol. 2, 2004, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1089705

Michael R. Smith (Contact Author)

University of Wyoming College of Law ( email )

Dept 3035
1000 E. University Ave.
Laramie, WY 82071
United States
307-766-6421 (Phone)

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
125
Abstract Views
1,907
Rank
407,063
PlumX Metrics