Legal Writing Center
The School of Law's Legal Writing Center is available to all University of Maryland law students, of all writing abilities, who want to strengthen their legal writing. It provides a place to get one-on-one feedback on your writing from a student peer; one who is both a strong writer and who has been trained to help others with their writing.
What kinds of writing can I take to the Center?
You can come to The Legal Writing Center with any law school-related writing: Seminar papers, Appellate Advocacy briefs, Writing Samples for job interviews, clinic work, Legal Memoranda for LAWR courses, and papers intended to fulfill the Advanced Writing Requirement. (Subject to any restrictions your individual professors might place on your use of The Legal Writing Center.)
What kind of feedback will I get from the Writing Fellows?
Writing Fellows can help you at all stages of your writing process; they will be prepared to comment on most aspects of your writing, from grammar, citation form, style and small scale organization, to large scale organization and analytical coherence. However, because the Writing Fellows will not be experts in specific substantive topics, their comments will not address the accuracy of your paper's substance.
The feedback you can expect from Writing Fellows will be the kinds that help you think through the problem posed by your assignment, and that focus on the legal reader's reactions to the text. This feedback will help you see any areas where your document creates confusion and the reasons for that confusion, but it will encourage you to come up with your own solutions. At times, a Writing Fellow might give you suggestions on how to revise a particular passage. Such help will be done by way of example, not for an entire paper.
The Writing Fellows are not there to proofread your papers, nor are they editors. They will not, of course, rewrite your papers for you. They can, however, spot patterns of writing problems and give you feedback on how to address these problems.
You should not expect to come to The Legal Writing Center for last-minute "fixes" the night before a paper is due. The Legal Writing Center will focus on giving you the kind of help that will have a longer-term effect on your writing. You will learn to be your own best editor.
Where can I find The Legal Writing Center and when is it open?
The Legal Writing Center is located on the 4th floor of the law school, in room 400. It is open approximately 40-50 hours per week, including evening hours. The exact weekly schedule fluctuates by semester in connection with the current Writing Fellows' own school schedule. Here is the current schedule: The Legal Writing Center Weekly Schedule
How can I sign up for an appointment?
The best way to make an appointment is to sign up in person using the appointment book, which is always located directly outside of The Legal Writing Center, Room 400. This appointment book contains the most up-to-date daily schedule of available appointment options. If you are unable to sign up yourself, you can ask a friend to make an appointment for you, you can call The Legal Writing Center at (410) 706-0160 and ask any Writing Fellow who answers to make an appointment for you, or, if you have difficulty reaching someone in the Legal Writing Center, you can contact Felicia Fine, Writing Program Coordinator, via email to .
When you make an appointment, please make sure to fill out a Legal Writing Center questionnaire and return the questionnaire, along with any draft you want reviewed, at least 24 hours before your appointment for every 15 pages of text to be reviewed. Please be as specific as possible when you fill out The Legal Writing Center questionnaire. The more we know about what you hope to accomplish during your appointment, the better prepared we will be to help you.
Draft papers and completed Legal Writing Center questionnaires should be submitted to The Legal Writing Center electronically in either Word or PDF formats through Blackboard's digital drop box feature. If you would like to have a paper reviewed, please follow the self-enrollment instructions on your Blackboard page to self-enroll for The Legal Writing Center so you can access the digital drop box feature on The Legal Writing Center's Blackboard page. You will only need to enroll yourself once to gain access to The Legal Writing Center's digital drop box; you will automatically be enrolled for all future semesters—until you graduate. You will still have to make an appointment to meet with a Writing Fellow in person using the sign up book located outside of The Legal Writing Center. The Blackboard page is for sending papers and questionnaires to the digital drop box and for communicating with the current Writing Fellows (instructors); it will not schedule your one-on-one appointment for you. Electronic submission of your draft papers and questionnaire form is done to make this process much more convenient for you—as the individual student—and for the specific Writing Fellow you are signing up to meet with.
If you have any additional questions about The Legal Writing Center itself or questions about how to efficiently utilize this resource to your maximum benefit, please contact Professor Susan Hankin, Director of Legal Writing, at or Felicia Fine, Writing Program Coordinator, at .
We look forward to seeing you in The Legal Writing Center!
FEEL FREE TO STOP BY TO BROWSE THROUGH OUR LIBRARY OF LEGAL WRITING PUBLICATIONS OR TO INQUIRE ABOUT UPCOMING COMPETITIONS.
