legal writing - any recommendations?

[conniechang]

Hi,

I am starting law school this fall as well.  I heard that legal writing is important but also needs lots of practice.  Could anyone recommend any books/CDs/courses that you think is useful for preparing for law school legal writing class?

Thanks.

[bossofyou]

CDs  ...  that you think is useful for preparing for law school legal writing class?

hehe

[Jihad_Jesus]

Definitely need to know the difference between their, there, and they're. If you can do this then you should be alright.

[SASS]

I have heard really good things about LEEWS though I haven't tried it myself. I have read Getting to Maybe and it was excellent. I would recommend it. Read it over the summer and refer back to it throughout the semester for a refresher. Other than that, knowing the difference between their, they're, there really helped knock out my competition. 

[jacy85]

I have heard really good things about LEEWS though I haven't tried it myself. I have read Getting to Maybe and it was excellent. I would recommend it. Read it over the summer and refer back to it throughout the semester for a refresher. Other than that, knowing the difference between their, they're, there really helped knock out my competition. 

To prevent any misinformation...LEEWS and Getting to Maybe (from what I understand of the book anyways) both deal with EXAM writing, not legal writing.  The two are very different.

I'd stick with the their, they're and there thing, and if you're really insistent, try one of Brian Garner's legal writing books.  He has some great books that deal with grammar and usage.  But doing anything more than brushing up on your basics will be a waste of your summer, IMO.

[SASS]

From what I understood, LEEWS was had a legal writing part of it. Again didn't use it.

Getting to Maybe is a testing tool, this is true.

I agree that brushing up on the basics is all you need to do though. Hopefully, you'll learn legal writing in your legal writing class. My books for Legal Methods read like reference books so they were only really helpful when I was actually doing the work while reading. 

[LegalMatters]

Brush up on your rules of grammar, punctuation, etc. It is very important but keep in mind that even if you don't excel at it, the academic version of legal writing is very different than what you will actually do in the real world (especially if you are assigned to write an open or closed memo). Do the best you can and pray it's pass/fail.