Individual writing consultations and group workshops are available to assist students in developing their legal writing skills.
Faculty, staff, and administrators seeking assistance with writing or instructional support should contact the Director of the Writing Center.
What to expect during a writing consultation:
During a writing consultation, you will work with a member of the Writing Center staff to discuss your draft. Typically, you tell us what you want to work on, and we coach you through analyzing your draft and developing revision strategies. We will read your draft and offer you honest feedback. We let you know how you are meeting legal writing expectations, what questions we have, or where we expected something different. You then decide how you want to revise your draft, and we allow time during the consultation for you to practice a writing technique. You leave with ideas for improvement and a plan for accomplishing it.
How we help:
We encourage students to plan on visiting the Writing Center multiple times for a single assignment so that we can assist you throughout the writing process. In early consultations, we can help you better understand your assignment, refine your focus, and work on organization or ideas for development. We can help you master legal writing techniques, such as CReAC organization, rule synthesis, case illustrations, rule-based reasoning, and analogical reasoning. Later consultations can be devoted to editing and proofreading strategies so that you can develop clear, concise writing or work on strong roadmaps, thesis sentences, and persuasive writing techniques.
We also encourage students to talk with us if they are struggling in developing a writing process that works for them. Good writing doesn’t happen effortlessly in a single writing session or two—it takes time, effort, and revision—but it should not feel impossible, overwhelming, or extremely stressful. We can help you develop a writing plan that works for you, and we can offer suggestions on dealing with issues of writer’s block and procrastination.
