Extending the Boundaries of Rhetoric in Legal Writing Pedagogy

Elizabeth C. Britt, Bernadette Longo, Kristin R. Woolever

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

3 Scopus citations

Abstract

In the study of law, postmodernism's interpretive turn has given rise to a wealth of scholarship analyzing the relationship of law's rhetoric to its social, cultural, and political contexts. This shift has influenced some teaching of "substantive" law school courses. At the university level, the interpretive turn has prompted composition scholars to reconsider how the teaching of writing is implicated, but no similar shift has occurred in legal writing pedagogy. Instead, those teaching legal writing largely teach as they were taught, emphasizing the use of rhetoric as a tool for successful lawyering. Legal writing professors must move beyond this narrow conception of rhetoric to help students become adept at the discourse of the legal community and capable of critically evaluating it.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)213-238
Number of pages26
JournalJournal of Business and Technical Communication
Volume10
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - 1996
Externally publishedYes

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Business and International Management
  • Communication
  • General Business, Management and Accounting

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