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50 J. Legal Educ. 431 (2000)
Legal Scholarship Blueprint

handle is hein.journals/jled50 and id is 441 raw text is: Legal Scholarship Blueprint William R. Slomanson A quintessential Scalia dissent recently chastised the majority for spawning the perception that the U.S. Supreme Court is a nine-headed Caesar, giving thumbs-up or thumbs-down to whatever outcome, case by case, suits or of- fends its collective fancy.' I offer this article, and direct it particularly to junior faculty, to minimize the evolution of any similar perception about the scholarship portion of the tenure process. No source comprehensively addresses the broad range of career-defining scholarship issues affecting survival (tenure) and notoriety (posttenure), and the important housekeeping decisions that will affect your career.- Anecdotal advice is thus a rather precious commodity. Its broader dissemination to pretenured faculty will promote a better understanding of the expectations, ethics, and etherealness of tenure scholarship. This article neither encourages nor discourages scholarship. Nor does it add much to the existing literature about the why of scholarship, what constitutes good scholarship, and whether scholarship makes you a better teacher. It does acknowledge the following reality. there is no one-size-fits-all blueprint. There are pervasive variables, however, which one should not ignore. Rookies might otherwise happen upon sensitive, quality-of-life issues after the point of no return. Like a construction project without a blueprint, the pursuit of tenure without a scholarship plan invites failure. By posing strategic questions, I hope to arm some modem gladiators in their quest for a scholarly thumbs-up in the tenure colosseum. The Core Decision What do you want to accomplish with the scholarship ingredient of your professional career? Were you to pose this question to your more experienced colleagues, any candid reply would acknowledge the so-called teaching-versus- lirdliam R. Slomanson is a professor at the ThomasJefferson School of Law. He thanks Marybeth Herald,Jean Peters, Kellye Testy, and David Van Zandt for their comments; Dorothy Hampton, reference librarian, for valuable research assistance; Dean Kenneth Vandevelde for his support; and all cited e-mail authors for permission to reprint their remarks. 1. Dickerson v. United States, 120 S.Ct. 2326, 2342 (2000). 2. Though no one source is comprehensive, the following are helpful: Mary Kay Kane. Some Thoughts on Scholarship for Beginning Teachers, 37J. Legal Educ. 14 (1987); Robert H. Abrams, Sing Muse: Legal Scholarship for New Law Teachers, 37J. Legal Educ. 1 (1987); DonaldJ. Weidner, A Dean's Letter to New Law Faculty About Scholarship. 4.J. Legal Educ. 440 (1994); Mary Beth Beazley & Linda H. Edwards, The Process and tie Product: A Bibliography of Scholarship About Legal Scholarship, 49 Mercer L Rev. 741 (1998). Journal of Legal Education, Volume 50, Number 3, (September 2000)

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