Still Alive Over Here

It's been a crazy few weeks. I had finals, and I'm back working full-time until school starts up again in January. On my "vacation", I have to finish up my seminar paper and prepare my note for the high-tech law journal. (The two overlap significantly, so it's more like writing 1 1/2 papers, not two.) Then I need to get the paper ready for publication so I can start sending it to law reviews in February. My goal is to publish one paper per semester for the rest of law school so that when I graduate, I can be ready to go on the teaching market with four articles published. That will put me significantly ahead of the competition in publications, which should make up for not having gone to Yale.

Business Writing Help!

As I'm sure anyone who has read my blog knows, I love to write. I mostly enjoy academic writing, such as essays and journal articles, but I've dabbled in blogging and journalism, and I've even tried my hand at creative writing. (NaNoWriMo fell victim to real life this year, though. Better luck next time.) Business writing is an area where I'm weak, however.

I got my start in the working world in 2000, when the dot-com bubble was at its bubbliest. I was a green 18-year old with no college education and no experience. They don't teach business writing in high school. [1] There was a huge labor shortage at the time, so qualifications for getting a job were: 1) Do you have a pulse? 2) Do you have a social security number?. Seeing as I was in possession of both of those qualifications, I got hired by a temp agency.

There's no training at most temp agencies, so I just got thrown into the world of business. I was expected to sink or swim. Fortunately, I learned to swim pretty quickly. Then college happened, then my mission happened, and then law school happened. During college, I worked as a teaching assistant, so I didn't have to worry about office skills. In law school, I worked in the library, where I shelved books and helped students with legal research.

Then The Great and Dreadful Interruption of Life (TM) happened. I suddenly found myself with half a law degree, no job, no money, and no marketable skills. I called up a different temp agency (that I had used over summers in law school when I wasn't shelving books) and I got placed in the rotation again. Business was slow, so I took a part-time job doing home health care on the weekends to pay the bills. (This health care job, which I intended to take for a few months to get back on my feet ended up becoming a full-time job that lasted for 3 years.) Once again, no need for business writing.

I went to paralegal school, but because of my 3 semesters of law school (which included a rather worthless legal writing and research class, as I've mentioned before), my writing class was waived. I graduated with honors, giving me a nice shiny marketable degree, but because of the economy, there wasn't really a market for paralegals at the time.

Back in February, I landed a position through my temp agency that was supposed to last for 3 months, covering the front desk. Once the 3 months was up, I was promoted to HR, where I still am today. (I got hired as a permanent employee in August.) So, I have a ton of work experience, I managed to go back to law school after TGaDIoL, but I still feel like my skills are deficient in a few key areas. (I had a much better legal writing class this time around, but I know business writing is different from legal writing, and I'm not even that good at non-academic legal writing anyway. Just ask my professor...)

My roommate recently graduated with a certificate in administrative assisting. I didn't even know that there were schools for that. She learned all sorts of useful stuff like how to write a memo. Anyway, so now I'm juggling law school (at the end of this semester, I will have completed 3 years, which is as much as most lawyers, but I digress) and working in HR, where I have no experience. I'm sort of learning as I go.

My boss asked me today to write a specific type of memo, and I'll admit that I had to google it to get an example. I'm a good writer, but there's so much in the business world that I don't know because I've spent most of my adult life in school, and I've spent much of my working life working for universities. This is a sort of long-winded way of getting to the point, but does anyone have any suggestions for a good business writing textbook or style guide? I want to have a good reference and a way to teach myself all the stuff that I probably should have picked up along the way over the past 10 years. [2]

---
[1] There may have been business writing courses available, but if there were, I never heard about them. I was tracked into high-end math and science classes because the guidance counselors, teachers, and many of my family members figured I would go on to become an engineer. Imagine everyone's surprise when I decided to study political science and philosophy in college and then go to law school. Of course, I do work for a software company, and I'm studying intellectual property law, so I'm sort of the most engineer-like legal person around.
[2] I don't need help with grammar, etc. Mainly, I need help with tone and formatting. Everything I write sounds like it was written by a lawyer, albeit a lawyer who refuses to use the words "heretofore" or "whereas". (But who apparently has no objection to the use of "albeit".)

Frugal Living Tips for the Rest of Us

Websites with frugal living tips abound on the internet. However, they're not typically useful to someone in my situation. The tips are generally geared toward a married couple (consisting of one wage-earner and one at-home individual) with several kids. This family lives in a house with a yard suitable for growing a vegetable garden. I'm single, I juggle work and school, and I live in an apartment where the only dirt available is whatever the dog tracks in.

Nonetheless, I'm known as the queen of frugality. I manage to have monthly living expenses of slightly under $500. (Given that I live in Silicon Valley, one of the most expensive areas of the entire country, this is nothing short of a miracle.) Here's what I've learned along the way. (I'm sure I've missed stuff; this is just what I remember right now. After a while, frugality just becomes an automatic way of life.)

Frugal Living Tips for People Who Don't Have Time, Space, or Inclination to Raise Chickens for Their Eggs*:

Words You Don't Hear Every Day

Words are kind of funny if you stop to think about it. Some words are common in everyday use. Some words are uncommon and are only heard in a few places. I've been thinking about that lately.

Supernal is one of those words. I've only heard it at church, and even then, only rarely. It seems to be one of those words that is confined to a specific context. I hear its synonyms, such as ethereal, divine, or heavenly in other places, but I'm sure people would give me a funny look if I described the school cafeteria's tofu chocolate mousse as supernal. [1]

Another word that seems confined to certain circumstances is salacious. I primarily hear this word in class discussions. (I have heard it elsewhere, but only rarely. More common are its synonyms - risque, racy, etc. However, even less common is its synonym, lascivious. I've only ever seen that one in the Bible.) I recall its use at least twice this semester, in different classes, by different professors. The first time was in my appellate advocacy class when we were discussing statutory interpretation. We were reading a case that the professor handed out. [2] As he passed it out, he said that it was a bit salacious, but it was nonetheless a good case to illustrate the point he was trying to make. [3] The second occurrence was today in my constitutional law class. We were discussing the constitutionality of restrictions on commercial speech. Some divorce lawyers in Chicago placed a prominent billboard advertising their services. The billboard had some racy pictures on it, and the professor was trying to spark discussion by asking us if it mattered that the advertisement was salacious.

What words do you hear in certain contexts but not in others?

____
1. It's really tasty, though. Not quite supernal, but certainly heavenly.
2. See People v. Gibbons, 215 Cal. App. 3d 1204 (1989).
3. The point he was trying to make is that statutes aren't self-interpreting, and that even a seemingly simple word like "communication" is subject to people arguing about it.

NaNoWriMo

It's November again, and that means it's time for NaNoWriMo! (National Novel Writing Month) Every year, budding authors get together and harness the power of positive peer pressure (look, I can alliterate!) to encourage one another to write. It's like having a jogging buddy. The goal is to write a 50,000 word novel by the end of the month.

I've been meaning to do it for a few years, but I never have time. I realized that I'll never find the time; I have to make the time, so I'm going to give it a go this year. I'm guessing that most of my novel will come between November 24 and 30. (Two reasons: 1- I'm a procrastinator. 2- My seminar paper is due on November 23.)

I have the embarrassingly low word count of 211 right now. (I should be around 6,600 to be on track.) I have a setting and a story outline; I just haven't had time to sit down and write it yet. You can follow my progress here. I don't have a title yet, so if anyone has any suggestions after reading the synopsis, feel free to let me know.

If any of you reading this are fellow participants, please add me as a writing buddy. (It's not too late to join if anyone wants to get started!)

Some Things Just Bug Me!...

...Like bugs, for example.

Well, not just bugs, but everything that goes along with bugs. If I had been Noah, I would have conveniently forgotten to take the insects on the ark. Sure, I probably would have been the recipient of some divine smiting, but I would be willing to take one for Team Humanity.

My apartment complex has a bug problem. I have a cat, so my room is blessedly bug-free. (Cheapest pest control ever. All I have to do is feed her, play with her, and change her litter. In return, she de-stresses me and eats bugs.) Anyway, due to the bug problem, the apartment management has decided to spray pesticide. It goes like this:

On Thursday night, a note is taped to the door of the apartment. It usually gets posted sometime between 8 and 10 pm. The note informs us that the pest control people are coming to spray sometime between the hours of 9 and 5 on Monday. Then there's a list of preparations that need to be made. We have to vacate the apartment for the duration of treatment and 4 hours following. That part isn't too bad. The annoying part is that we have to bag all of our clothing and linens, seal up all of our food, and move all of our furniture at least 24 inches away from the wall. We also have to remove our bedding and take our mattresses off of our bedframe and lean them up against the wall.

This whole preparation process took several hours the first time, but I've gotten it down to a science, and I can prepare in about an hour. Since I have a cat, I have to kennel her for the day. I can't exactly take Ebony with me to work and school.

This morning was pest control day again. I got up bright and early at 5:30 in the morning to prepare. (Jen wisely decided to spend the night at our parents' house, so she avoided the worst of it. I get the last laugh, though, since she gets to put it all back together.) I got Ebony into her crate and headed to the kennel.

I arrived at the kennel at 7:00, when they open. I began the check-in procedure, and the guy at the front desk said that I needed to show proof of Ebony's vaccinations. I had come prepared, and I produced the report I had gotten from the vet on Friday. However, the codes in the kennel's computer system were some sort of cryptic abbreviation, and the receptionist didn't know which abbreviation went to which shot on the list. (The list from the vet had the proper names of the shots.) He asked a few of his co-workers and none of them knew either. He tried to call my vet, but the vet doesn't open until 8. He said that he couldn't take Ebony until he talked to the vet. I suggested he google the abbreviations to see what he came up with, and he looked at me like it was the stupidest idea he had ever heard and said he couldn't do that.

I collected my cat, my vet report, and my irritation and left, informing him that I would be taking my business elsewhere, since the service was so poor. (I had had problems the last time, too.) So, word to the wise, if you're looking for a place to kennel your pets, don't go to PetSmart.

Anyway, I got home at 7:30 am (I had to be in class at 9:15, so time is ticking at this point.) I fired up my laptop and started searching for kennel options. After all, I know how to use Google! I found a local vet that offered kenneling services, so I dropped Ebony off and headed to class. Traffic was kind to me, so I wasn't late.

Naturally, the kennel closes at 6:00 pm, and I don't get home until 9:30 pm. So, I e-mailed Jen with the info on where to get my cat, and she agreed to pick her up on her way home. Jen just texted me to let me know she retrieved Ebony safe and sound, but that her collar is missing. I'm going to have to track it down, because I don't want to have to pay the city of Fremont for a new license.

And, of course, when I get home tonight, I'm going to have to wash all the kitchen utensils that I forgot to put away. That's like 3 loads of dishes. I so don't have time for this!

Edit: Thankfully, Jen found the collar right after I published this. One less thing to worry about.

The Jester Hat

I should totally invest in a court jester hat. It would go with all of the juggling I've been doing lately.

I survived oral arguments for my advocacy class. (I did better than survive, actually. I rocked!) I have an outline for my high tech journal note due this weekend, and I have a draft of one section of my seminar paper due on Monday. (I'm using the same paper for the note and my seminar, so it's not as bad as it sounds.) Then I have my revised brief for advocacy due next week. This is all in addition to my regular reading for my other classes, and, of course, my job.

Plus, I have to figure out what I'm going to do this summer. On the one hand, my employer has invited me to work full-time this summer. It's quite tempting, since it's a sure bet, and the pay is pretty decent. On the other hand, I should probably get some legal experience, like at a firm or something. (Of course, I don't want to be a lawyer, so firm life isn't that attractive to me.) I'm considering getting a judicial externship, but those aren't paid.

I get to register for classes this afternoon. Here's hoping I get the classes I need!

How to Motivate

I can't stand it when people try to use guilt trips on me. It feels so manipulative. However, appropriate motivation works wonders. Here's a good example of how to appeal to people's sense of responsibility without resorting to a guilt trip:

In one of my classes, we have been assigned to watch an oral argument before an appellate court. People asked the professor what kind of documentation he wanted to prove that we did it. He said that he didn't need any documentation. He talked about how he is a big believer in the honor system and that as lawyers, we need to be scrupulously ethical in all of our dealings. He told us that we were on our honor to complete the assignment and that he will not be checking to see if we did. He reminded us that this meant that there would be no penalty for failure to watch an argument, but that we have an obligation to fulfill the assignment because we said that we would.

Now, I can be a bit of a slacker at times. I'm notorious for doing the bare minimum to get by when it comes to homework. If it's not graded, I'm not likely to want to take the time to do it, since I have so many graded things to do. However, after a speech like that, there's no way I'm going to skip the oral argument. I'm not going to violate the trust my professor has placed in me.

To PhD, or not to PhD. That is the question.

With the exception of a year and a half for my mission and a year and a half to work between my first time in law school and when I went to paralegal school prior to my second time in law school, I've spent my whole life in school in one form or another. In 19 1/2 months, I'll finally have a JD. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

I plan on becoming a law professor. Technically, a JD is sufficient for that goal*, but with the tight market, a PhD or LLM would give me a leg-up on the process. When I heard the recommendation of getting an LLM, I wanted to cry. The thought of spending another 1-2 years in law school was totally unappealing.

I just found out that UC Berkeley has a PhD program in jurisprudence and social policy. It's an interdisciplinary program (law, economics, political science, philosophy, and criminal justice) designed to prepare people to teach law. (The program doesn't require a JD, but I'm sure that by having one, I'll have a leg-up in that department.) It's tempting, but I'm just not sure I could justify another 5 years in school.

Before going back to law school, I considered getting a PhD in philosophy, but I decided that the timing was wrong. I do want to get one eventually, perhaps when I'm retired, wealthy, and full of spare time. I'm still broke, swamped, and getting to an age where I should start being a productive member of society.

Anyway, I have it narrowed down to the following options:
1. Go for the PhD. Start in the fall of 2010 and switch back into part-time law school at SCU. (Completion: JD - December 2011, PhD - May 2015)
2. Go for the PhD, but wait until law school is finished. (Completion: JD - May 2011, PhD - May 2016)
3. Finish law school and cross my fingers for one of those coveted tenure-track teaching positions. (Completion: JD - May 2011)
4. Are you crazy?! Finish law school and get a normal job as a lawyer for a few years before even thinking about going back to school. (Completion: JD - May 2011, PhD - maybe in the future??)
5. Who cares about tenure, anyway? Finish law school and go be an underpaid second-class citizen of the legal academy (aka legal writing and research professor). (Completion: JD - May 2011)

Thoughts?
---
*In theory, one only needs a JD to teach law, but in practice, one needs a JD from an elite law school (Yale, Harvard, or Stanford, in that order), a prestigious judicial clerkship, and a position as an editor on the law review. Obviously, I don't have the elite law school, so I need to land the clerkship, the editorial position on law review (I'm already an associate on the high tech journal, so that's at least in the cards), and I need to publish like mad and hope someone is willing to take a chance on me.

My Love/Hate Relationship With Citation

In academic writing, citation is essential. [1] It helps the reader find the sources on which the author relied to make the conclusions asserted. It gives credit where credit is due to thinkers who came before. It keeps everyone honest.

However, the minutiae of the various citation systems can be annoying. They're all different, and each teacher has his/her personal preference as to which one to use. Does it really matter whether the period following "Id." is italicized? (For that matter, does it really make a difference as to whether it's "Id." or "Ibid."?) Will I be better able to find the source? I never was a big fan of rigid forms of citation, but I became especially opposed when I started law school. My first experience in law school was remarkably negative. (It was not at SCU, where I'm quite happy now.)

I had quite possibly the worst legal writing and research teacher in existence. [2] He was a grumpy adjunct who was probably 80 years old and he hated teaching. He thought the class was a waste of time, and as a result, he didn't put much effort into it. I learned next to nothing in his class. [3] He worshiped the Bluebook. [4] He would be picky about the stupidest details, and we would get marked down for little things. Forgetting to italicize was treated as seriously as misstating a proposition of law. Additionally, the class was graded on a strict curve, and the grades began with the first assignment when nobody had ever seen the Bluebook before. If someone didn't immediately grasp the nuances of this 416 page behemoth, there went the grade for the whole semester.

(I should add at this juncture that my legal writing and research teacher at SCU is excellent. He's among the top three professors I've had in my entire college education.) [5]

I'm in the process of applying to become an adjunct at one or more of the local community colleges. I hope to teach either English or Philosophy, but I could see myself teaching Political Science as well. In any of these subjects, I plan to assign term papers. I'm not going to be uptight about citation. Here's a proposed syllabus section. What do you think?

Academic Integrity:

It is a serious violation of academic integrity to pass the work of others off as your own. This is called plagiarism. If you are caught plagiarizing, you will fail the course and be reported to the dean.

It is, however, appropriate and expected that you build upon the work of others. You must cite all sources that you use. The purpose of citation is to ensure that prior thinkers and researchers are given credit for their work. There are many citation formats in existence, and they all promote the same principles. The purpose of a unified citation system is to make it easier for the reader to locate and verify your sources.

For the purposes of this class, you must cite your sources in accordance with a generally accepted citation format. Examples include, but are not limited to:

Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association
MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers
Chicago Manual of Style
Associated Press Stylebook
The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation
ALWD Citation Manual

You will receive full credit for citations as long as I can locate and verify your sources.

------
Footnotes:
[1] If this were a law review article, there would be a footnote after nearly every sentence, either citing to something, or making a parenthetical comment such as this one. Since this is a blog post, I'll spare you the extensive footnotes. (Five isn't extensive, is it?)
[2] I have not done an extensive study of the quality of legal writing and research teachers, but I have personally had three, and I know friends who, altogether, have had upwards to ten different teachers. This particular teacher in question is the worst. (I'm aware that the plural of anecdote is not data, but I'm also aware that hyperbole is an accepted literary device.)
[3] I should add at this point that I did learn how to do legal research using actual real, live books. This is the only thing I learned in the class, and it's something for which I'm grateful.
[4] The Bluebook is the short name for The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation. It's the most common citation manual for the legal profession.
[5] The other two are professors I took classes from as an undergraduate: one in philosophy (who caused me to switch to studying philosophy), and one in economics.

Feline Alarm Clock

It's been a long week. On Monday, both of the other admins were out of the office. I only work afternoons on Monday because I have class in the morning. When I got into work at noon, the place was in a state of utter chaos. I had to spend all afternoon taking care of little administrative details. I didn't even get to my desk until 2 pm, and I spent an hour answering e-mails.

I have a cite-checking assignment due tomorrow for one of the law journals I work on, and I've been struggling to get the motivation to get started. I meant to do it on Monday night after my night class, but I was too tired. (I got out of class at 8:45.) Then I meant to do it yesterday after class. (I got out of class at 4.) However, I forgot my student ID card, so I couldn't get into the library. I went home and tripped over furniture because my roommate used the carpet cleaner in her room (to clean up after the now-gone litter of kittens), so all her stuff was in the front room. I didn't get any work done and I went to bed around 11.

Just as I turned out my light and shut my eyes, I remembered that I had to set my alarm clock. I thought I had set it and then I drifted off to sleep. At 6:15 this morning, I woke up to my cat meowing and nudging me. I sleepily looked over at my clock and realized that I had forgotten to set my alarm. Thank goodness she was looking out for me. I was only 5 minutes late to work.

Ebony staring out the window.


Ebony sitting on the fence.

I Had It Coming...

Everyone seems to have their preferred place to sit in the classroom. I'm a second-row person. That way, I'm close enough to the action to be involved, but not so close to the professor that I feel exposed. Of course, nobody wants to sit in the first row, so the second row pretty much becomes the de facto front row.

I'm also one of those people who is in love with the sound of her own voice. (I hear that's a necessary qualification for my chosen career of law professor.) I can't help it. When I have something relevant to say, I say it. Also, due to some strange statistical anomaly, my class is almost entirely composed of people with dark brown hair. There are two or three people with blond hair, and my hair is somewhere on that strange fringe between strawberry blond and auburn. So, we have the perfect storm here - a talkative redhead in the front row.

I hadn't done my reading for Constitutional Law yesterday. (It's not a huge deal. It's a subject I'm already well-versed in from prior educational opportunities.) The professor (we'll call him professor A) is a big fan of the Socratic method of teaching. He will cold-call students and grill them, often playing devil's advocate in order to find the weaknesses in a student's argument. He will also take volunteers when he asks a question, and he is much easier on the volunteers than he is on the people he cold-calls.

I volunteered early on in class yesterday and I made some vague 9th Amendment argument. (All arguments about the 9th Amendment are vague. Nobody is really sure what it means. My scholastic goal is to figure it out and write the definitive book or article on the subject.) Professor A said I had effectively brought up both the strengths and weaknesses of my argument and then he moved on. I relaxed for the rest of the class.

Right after Constitutional Law, I had Appellate Advocacy. (Constitutional Law is held in a big lecture hall with about 80 students. Appellate Advocacy is held in a seminar room with about 18 students.) I walked into the classroom and sat down in the second row, like always. As usual, nobody sat in the first row. One of my classmates came in and sat next to me. She's also in my Constitutional Law class, so we began discussing our thoughts on Professor A's teaching style. My Appellate Advocacy professor (Professor B) was standing near the front of the classroom (class hadn't started yet) pretending not to listen to this conversation. I mentioned my secret to getting out of being cold-called, which is to volunteer early and often. (Professor B doesn't cold-call.)

Class began. I tend to talk way too much in that class because nobody else talks and I feel bad for Professor B. (I have a good working relationship with him, since I had him for another class last year, and he's helping me out with my career goals.) I've been in the situation where I've been teaching a class and nobody participates, and I always appreciate having someone to chime in when there's an awkward silence. My goal for the day, however, was to go through the entire class period without making any comments, since I fear that I'm annoying to my fellow classmates.

My goal lasted for about three minutes. I couldn't help it. We were going over the quiz that was administered last week about our research for the semester. We were supposed to find cases about a circuit split for a specific federal statute. Professor B asked the class how we found the cases. The answer he was expecting was that we ran a search in Lexis or Westlaw. (They're online legal databases. The companies let law students use them for free, but they're really expensive for lawyers. The idea is to get people hooked on them in school so they'll pay after school.) Nobody said anything, so I raised my hand.

I got called on, and I said, "You're probably not going to like how I found the circuit split." I proceeded to describe how, in 45 seconds, I typed the citation to the statute, and the words "circuit split" into Google and found the Split Circuit blog. The blog had a post about the exact issue we were supposed to be researching, and a list of all the cases involved in the circuit split. Professor B got the most priceless look on his face. It was a cross between surprised, impressed, and annoyed. Then he composed himself and said that if I had been doing this research for an employer, I would have been commended on my frugality and efficiency. Then he said that the Split Circuit blog was where professors often looked when getting ideas for writing these types of case files. (I'm guessing the blog post I found was the exact blog post that inspired him to write the problem in the first place.)

I was feeling pretty good about myself at this point. I figured I was off the hook for the rest of class. After discussing the quiz, we moved on to discussing techniques for writing sections of a legal brief. After a short lecture, we were instructed to write three versions of the issue statement for our case file. The first one was supposed to be too abstract, the second one was supposed to be too specific, and the third one was supposed to be just right.

About ten minutes later, we reconvened. Professor B read his version of the too abstract statement, and I was pleased that mine was almost identical to his. (Although looking back on it, I'm not sure I should be proud of the ability to write bad legal prose.) He then asked for volunteers to share their "just right" statements. Nobody volunteered. He looked around the room at us and said, "Don't make me call on people." I leaned back, confident that I wouldn't get called on, since I talk every day in class.

Well, I got called on, and I was asked to read my statement to the entire class. I totally had it coming, though. After my little pronouncement before class that I volunteer to avoid getting cold-called when I'm unprepared, and after announcing that it's extremely effective, the universe (or, more likely, Professor B) was trying to teach me a lesson.

I'm just hoping my secret won't get around to my other professors. My goal is to be completely prepared for every class, because I could totally see myself getting cold-called with alarming frequency next week.

Short Thoughts - Volume 2

I've been swamped with school, so I haven't had much time to blog lately. Here are some brief funny things that have happened lately.

In the Library:
On Saturday afternoon, I had to complete a cite-checking assignment for one of the law journals I'm on. (Basically, I had to take a footnote range for an article, look up all the sources the author used, and make sure they're accurate.) I was sitting on the couch in the library in between rows of books. On my right was the Federal Reporter, a collection of cases from the courts of appeals. On my left was the Federal Supplement, a collection of cases from federal district courts. As my mind wandered, I decided that Federal Supplement sounds like it ought to be some sort of government vitamin pill.

In Constitutional Law:
Yesterday in my constitutional law class, we were discussing the appropriate level of judicial scrutiny under the 14th Amendment for affirmative action legislation. (It's strict scrutiny, in case anyone is wondering.) The professor asked a provocative question. (I don't remember the exact question, but he was using it to spark discussion.) He then turned to one of my classmates and said, "[student's name], you look like you're ready to litigate something." He then proceeded to grill this poor soul for the next five minutes. I'll remember never to have a litigious expression on my face after hearing a provocative question.

Nerdy Goodness

If I believed in reincarnation (which I don't), I would probably say that I had been either a philosopher or an English teacher in a past life. I get excited about commas, I think Eats, Shoots & Leaves is the funniest book ever (even though there are punctuation errors in it), and I have a shirt that says "Bad grammar makes me [sic]!" I write for fun, and I love philosophy. I could talk about Kant or Aristotle all day.

Unfortunately, in law school, I don't get a chance to read and absorb philosophy very often. However, I did run across some interesting articles this week that I enjoyed immensely. (I don't recall how I found them. Sometimes interesting stuff just finds me as I randomly google things.)

The first one is not philosophical, but it's still a thought-provoking article. It's called Cite Unseen: How Neutral Citation and America's Law Schools Can Cure Our Strange Devotion to Bibliographical Orthodoxy and the Constriction of Open and Equal Access to the Law. It's a bit lengthy, but it's well worth the read. The main point is that championing a neutral citation format for caselaw (i.e. one that doesn't depend on the pagination in West's case reporters) would lead to better access to the law.

The second one brings two of my favorite subjects together: writing and philosophy. It's called The Poetry of Persuasion: Early Literary Theory and Its Advice to Legal Writers. The introduction is a little dull, and I almost stopped reading at that point. I'm glad I didn't, however. (The introduction can easily be skimmed or skipped in order to get to the good stuff.) The rest of the article analyzes what various thinkers (most notably Longinus and Aristotle) have to say about persuasive writing, and what it means for the legal writers of today. I found it helpful, and I'm going to integrate some of the ideas into my writing.

The First Week of School

After a completely insufficient vacation, I'm back at school. I'm really looking forward to this semester, though. I'm only working 20 hours per week, and I'm taking 5 classes. It's going to be a long few months, but it's going to be great! I feel like I'm really getting toward my goals. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.