Scholarly Research for Law Students
Developing a Research Plan
Research for a seminar paper differs from the type of legal research covered in 1L legal research classes or in legal practice. In those sorts of environments, you are usually researching a given question. Your goal is to locate authority relevant to your actual or hypothetical client's problem. By contrast, it is up to you to determine the research questions when writing a scholarly paper. Your thesis, or the unique point of view you bring to the topic, will guide your research.
You will also use different types of resources. In order to write your scholarly paper, you will probably work with more than just Lexis and Westlaw. In contrast to practical legal research, which focuses on primary law materials, your seminar paper is likely to draw on law review articles, journal articles from other fields, books, government and nonprofit resources, and news articles.
This guide outlines the big-picture process of researching for your scholarly paper. The main steps are:
- Selecting a Topic: You need to find a topic that is not too broad or too narrow. You might have an idea based on your previous work or life experience. If not, you may want to look at some of the current awareness tools provided in this section. Once you have developed a first draft of your thesis statement, you can move on to a preemption check.
- Preemption Check: The preemption check is where you make sure your thesis has not been dealt with before by another author. Even if your original idea is preempted, you can usually tweak your thesis statement so it is sufficiently novel or original. Another aspect of the preemption check is making sure you understand the current state of the law. You don't want your idea to be preempted by case law, a statute or a regulation. Again, even if you are preempted, you can usually adjust your thesis rather than abandoning your topic. The preemption check involves reviewing a variety of legal and non-legal databases.
- Research: Research is iterative, meaning your work in non-linear steps, often adjusting your work based on what you learn as you go.
There is often a blurring of these three steps. For instance, during your preemption check, you may complete much of your preliminary research. You may also refine your topic several times during your research and writing.
In addition, this guide also covers:
- Current Awareness: How to set up alerts.
- Interlibrary Loan: If the vast resources of the Penn State Libraries do not have what you need, you can request journal articles and books from other libraries.
- Organizational Tools: Your paper will likely involve a large number of sources. You can keep track of these using folders, Westlaw's outline feature, or a citation manager like Zotero.
- Bluebook Citation Generator: This tool creates first drafts of Bluebook citations. It can be especially useful for items with a control number like an ISBN (book), DOI (journal article) or PMID (Pub Med ID).
Selected Books on Scholarly Legal Writing
Academic Legal Writing by Call Number: KF250.V65 2010 ReferenceISBN: 9781599417509Publication Date: 2010Designed to help law students write and publish articles, this text provides detailed instructions for every aspect of the law school writing, research, and publication process. Topics covered include law review articles and student notes, seminar term papers, how to shift from research to writing, cite-checking others' work, publishing, and publicizing written works. With supporting documents available on http://volokh.com/writing, the book helps law students and everyone else involved in academic legal writing: professors save time and effort communicating basic points to students; law schools satisfy the American Bar Association's second- and third-year writing requirements; and law reviews receive better notes from their staff. The Fourth Edition adds examples drawn from successful student notes, coupled with detailed explanations of what makes the examples effective, and how they could have been made still more effective. It also elaborates further on how one can research a topic more comprehensively than many students do, both by finding a broader range of examples and applications, and by investigating the key cases more deeply.
Modern Legal Scholarship by Call Number: KF250.C684 2020ISBN: 9781531010270Publication Date: 2020This book provides a comprehensive, reader-friendly approach to researching, writing, and publishing a variety of documents relevant to legal practice in today's world, including law journal articles, seminar papers and capstone projects, bar journal articles, policy papers, op-eds, social media posts and blogs, and even creative works. With helpful examples and clear step-by-step instructions, this book meets writers where they are and encourages them to find their unique scholarly and professional voice.
Scholarly Writing for Law Students by Call Number: KF250.F35 2011 Reference CollectionISBN: 9780314207203Publication Date: 2011This book teaches law students how to write scholarly papers for seminars, law reviews, and law review competitions. It helps novices and even more-experienced scholars to write papers with a minimum of anxiety. Employing a process theory of writing, the text first describes the enterprise of scholarly writing and then discusses techniques for brainstorming, researching, drafting, and revising for substance and style. There are also chapters on footnote practice, plagiarism, law review editing, and publication. Appendixes provide a sample law review competition paper, answers to in-text exercises, and sample syllabi for scholarly writing courses.
The Legal Scholar's Guidebook by Call Number: KF250.B47 2020 ReferenceISBN: 9781543813050Publication Date: 2020The Legal Scholar's Guidebook demystifies academic legal writing by providing concrete advice on topic selection, research strategies, and analytical frameworks. It is an essential resource for any serious legal scholar. Nascent scholars will find it a reassuring guide through a demanding process and experienced scholars will find it a source of encouragement. Wherever you are on your scholarly journey, the Guidebook is your compass. Scholars will benefit from: Chapter Brainstormsthat contain Questions guiding entry into stages of the research and writing process. Squelch the Impostor tips that include advice to manage stress inherent at each stage of the research and writing process. Specific assignments to methodically guide the scholar through each stage. Examples, Guides, and Checklists that provide samples to help the scholar understand expectations at each stage.
Scholarly Writing by Call Number: KF250.F35 2011 ReferenceISBN: 9781531013707Publication Date: 2019In addition to a standard first-year legal writing curriculum, most law schools now require upper-level students to write a sophisticated legal research paper on a topic of their choice. Students often struggle through the scholarly writing process, from finding a topic to polishing a final paper, and many never fully develop and defend a thesis. The third edition of Scholarly Writing: Ideas, Examples, and Execution offers a lifeline to students, guiding them through the process of constructing their legal research papers from start to finish. It walks students through a five-step process for researching and writing scholarly papers and follows five published student papers from idea to final execution as a method of illustrating the principles advocated in the text. This example-based approach sets this book apart from others; the authors not only tell students how to approach their papers, but through annotated excerpts of example papers, they show students how to approach their papers. The book offers new strategies for strengthening a draft paper, including how to place a thesis in a broader context and how to reinforce a thesis throughout a paper.
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