(Book Review) Chew, Alexa Z., and Katie Rose Guest Pryal. The Complete Legal Writer.

Abstract

The genre discovery approach to legal writing pedagogy rejects the concept of merely introducing unfamiliar document types in the first-year writing course as ineffective. Instead, borrowing crucial elements from rhetorical theory, the approach seeks to teach legal writers to identify genre types and document conventions. With that knowledge, the legal writer is equipped to guide themselves through the process of writing any genre that they encounter (in upper-level courses and inthe workplace), even genres that they have never seen before.

The Complete Legal Writer not only covers fundamental concepts including legal logic and analysis, research methodology,the writing process, and citation literacy, it presents a pedagogy that has the potential to equip students with a method of evaluating all documents/genres using an approach that will prepare them to write and ultimately to practice more effectively.

Keywords: Legal Research, Legal Writing, Legal Rhetoric, Genre Discovery Approach