My feelings on teaching first year law students legal
writing and research is to teach the first year good
habits. They should learn that the law library is an
extremely importabnt place for them to be, that they
should be there much of their non-classroom time,
learning how to plan and conduct legal research, and
how to write their ideas into proper legal style (!).
When first year students use the computer labs they
should be trained immediately in learning how to
properly integrate their computer sessions into
successful writing and research that endures longer
than the time spent at the PC. Students too fast
learn and become attached to printing blindly from
lexis and Westlaw without integrating the information
they searched down into their documents. Perhaps
Libraries will have to become more involved in
training law students on proper use and integration of
computers into their research and writing.
I definitely agree with Al Brecht, that students
should learn to see the librarians as a resource
worthy of their continued use. The 1L should immerse
herself into research and the library and they should
not stop the process until graduation and passage of
the bar.
Now second and third year students do tend to learn
differently, because they have the foundation that the
first years are now building. It is a kind of ritual,
a rite of passage, if you will, where the student
learns and matures over a three year period, but the
most important time for the law student is probably at
the beginning, where bad or good habits are devleoped.
Regards-
Joe
---| Joe Rosenfeld cowboy@trans.csuohio.edu | CSU Law Library j.rosenfeld@csuohio.edu
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