Law Talk: Speaking, Writing, and Entering the Discourse of Law
![handle is hein.journals/duqu40 and id is 499 raw text is: Law Talk: Speaking, Writing, and Entering the
Discourse of Law
Susan L. DeJarnatt*
What students do when working collaboratively on their
writing is not write or edit or, least of all, read proof. What
they do is converse. They talk about the subject and about the
assignment. They talk through the writer's understanding of
the subject .... Most of all they converse about and as a part
of writing . . . . In short, they learn, by practicing it in this
orderly way, the normal discourse of the academic
community.1
I. INTRODUCTION
What is the normal discourse of the academic community of law,
a community that exists to produce professionals in. the field of law
practice and not necessarily to replenish the ranks of law scholars?
The practice of law requires lawyers to work collaboratively and
collectively - to define issues, create documents, negotiate, and
resolve legal disputes. It requires lawyers to discuss their writing
with their target audience as well as with their colleagues. Law
professors regularly present scholarly work to an audience of peers
for their reaction. But law school, even in writing courses, rarely
offers students opportunities to experience or to model this crucial
part of the normal discourse of law. This article examines how
legal education generally, and legal research and writing teachers,
in particular, can more effectively bring students into the discourse
of the community of law, a discourse that relies on conversation
about writing, by enabling students to talk with each other about
their writing.
* Associate Professor at the Beasley School of Law of Temple University. The author is
grateful to Eli Goldblatt, Kathy Stanchi, Ellie Margolis, Peter Schneider, Jan Levine, Debra
Lee, Mary Ray and Rick Greenstein for their helpful comments on this article; to Patrick
Cicero and Todd Cook for commentary and research assistance, and to the Beasley School
of Law for support.
1. Kenneth Bruffee, Collaborative Learning and the Conversation of Mankind, 46 C.
ENG. 635 (1984) reprinted in CROSS-TALK iN COMp THEORY 393, 403-04 (Victor Villanueva, Jr.
ed. 1997) [hereinafter CRoss-TALK].](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/duqu40&div=24&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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Law Talk: Speaking, Writing, and Entering the Discourse of Law
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