Resources for First Year Law Students

For more than eighty years, The Bluebook has provided authoritative guidance to legal citation for American students, professionals, and scholars. Wire-bound to lie flat and fully indexed.

This book is used as the standard for most legal citation formats. Most jurisdictions use the guidelines for their states' citations. Each state may or may not add rules specific to their rules. Some states and federal courts follow Universal Citation formatting. Please see the LibGuide on Legal Citations.

Essay exams don't have to be a mystery. With its wealth of visual aids, examples, and practical advice, John Dernbach's concise guide enables pre-law and law school students to develop the strong essay-writing skills they need to succeed and feel confident taking essay exams. Making a big difference in only about 100 pages, Writing Essay Exams to Succeed in Law School (Not Just to Survive), features: brief but to the point presentation and a comprehensible, engaging writing style includes visuals, such as an attractive design and boxes on interesting points, that not only help with understanding the author's points but also hold students' attention many examples that outline what is wrong with the example and demonstrate how to do things right sample exam questions, each with several possible answers New to the Third Edition: the author has annotated the student answer to the Hayakawa problem in Chapter 4 to show key features, such as explanations of rules, explanation of elements, application of sub-elements to facts, and conclusions an all-new Chapter 8 explains how exams are like the real practice of law--a point that underscores the enduring importance of learning exam-writing skills. Writing Essay Exams to Succeed in Law School, Not Just to Survive, Third Edition, is exactly the tool every student needs to learn to write superior exams.

Recognizing that law students operate under severe time constraints, Professor Calleros employs a reassuring, accessible style that makes points quickly and clearly. Starting with creative examples and illustrations from familiar, nonlegal contexts, the author introduces students to new concepts by analogy and then advances to more complex legal examples. Exercises and practice exams, with a focus on essay questions and model answers, help students identify their strengths and weaknesses, plan strategies, and organize their efforts. Law School Exams: Preparing and Writing to Win offers techniques for maximizing scores on several types of essay questions, as well as on multiple-choice and other questions. Exam anxiety is tackled by a helpful, positive perspective: the right amount of stress can serve as a motivator. Students get help in reducing anxiety to a productive level by learning how to place exams into proper perspective. Stress-management techniques are introduced, including, stretching, meditation, and listening to motivational music. The Second Edition introduces new sample flow charts into the presentation, and additional examples, questions, and sample answers appear throughout the text. Hallmark features of Law School Exams: Preparing and Writing to Win: --accessible, reassuring style o points are clear and concise for students under severe time constraints --creative examples and illustrations from familiar, nonlegal contexts o introduces students to new concepts by analogy o then advances to more complex legal examples --exercises and practice exams organize student's effort o identify strengths and weaknesses o focus on essay questions and model answers o help plan strategies --addresses techniques for maximizing scores o several types of essay questions o multiple-choice and other objective questions --tackles exam anxiety o helps students understand that a small degree of anxiety can motivate o shows how to reduce anxiety to a productive level --place exams into proper perspective --prepare thoroughly --adopt stress-management techniques: stretching, meditation, motivational music

******Judge Noce recomends this book for law students.

Last January, the Legal Writing Institute gave Wydick its Golden Pen Award for having written Plain English for Lawyers. The Legal Writing Institute is a non-profit organization that provides a forum for discussion and scholarship about legal writing, analysis, and research. The Institute has over 1,300 members representing all of the ABA-accredited law schools in the United States. Its membership also includes law teachers from other nations, English teachers, and practicing lawyers.The LWI award states: ?Plain English for Lawyers . . . has become a classic. Perhaps no single work has done more to improve the writing of lawyers and law students and to promote the modern trend toward a clear, plain style of legal writing.'In 2003 Wydick retired after 32 years on the law faculty of the University of California, Davis. But he still teaches his favorite course ? a seminar in advanced legal writing for third-year law students. For the past eight summers he has also lectured at the International Legislative Drafting Institute presented in New Orleans by the Public Law Center, a joint venture of Tulane and Loyola law schools. There the audience consists of lawyers and non-lawyers from abroad who earn their living drafting legislation in many different languages. ?Teaching at the Institute,? Wydick says, ?is a precious opportunity to learn how much we English-users have in common with people who write laws in other languages.'How will the fifth edition of Plain English for Lawyers differ from its predecessors? Wydick promises that it will remain a little book, small enough and palatable enough not to intimidate over-loaded law students. ?Most of the text will remain the same,? Wydick says, ?but in the past seven years I've learned some new things about writing in English, and I want to share that with the readers.' In addition, the exercises at the end of the chapters will be different (a welcome change for long-time teachers who are tired of the old ones). Finally, the teacher's manual will include additional exercises that teachers can give to students who want or need extra practice.' . . . probably the most popular legal text today . . . .'?The New York Times