Table of Contents
Preface
Chapter 1: The Elements of an Essay
The Thesis Statement
Roadmap
Paragraph Structure and Topic Sentences
Chapter 2: Thesis Statements
Riggs v. Palmer
The Pavlinko Will
Some Definitions: Direct and Circumstantial Evidence
Leo Tolstoy’s “God Sees the Truth but Waits”
Excerpt from Melville Davisson Post’s “The Corpus Delicti”
Chapter 3: Prewriting
Freewriting
Lists and Outlines
Task Lists and Subdividing
Chapter 4: Essay Structure
Basic Essay Structure
Transitions
A Writing Task: Legal Cause
The Structure of Comparison and Contrast
The Structure of Narrative
Chapter 5: Grammatical Errors
An Ungrammatical Will
Independent and Dependent Clauses
Fragments
Run-ons
Parallel structure
Chapter 6: Integrating Source material
Support
Integrating Quotes
William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily”
Unity
Chapter 7: Gathering Research
Research Paper vs. Information Dump
The Case for Print Sources
Locating Print Sources
Locating Internet Sources
Evaluating Internet Sources
A Few Words about Wikipedia
A Research Task: Asylum
The Structure of exemplification
The Structure of Argumentation
Chapter 8: Citing Sources
Why must sources be cited?
Which uses of sources must be cited?
How are sources properly cited?
The Works Cited list
Chapter 9: Paraphrasing
What is Paraphrasing?
What is Plagiarism?
The Difficulty of Paraphrasing
Tips for How to Paraphrase
Practice with Paraphrases and Plagiarism
Chapter 10: Cause/Effect
The Structure of Cause/Effect
Negligence
Writing About Negligence
More practice with negligence
Critiquing a Student’s Argument
Chapter 11: Conciseness
Conciseness
A Judicial Opinion
Writing Tasks: Accomplice Liability
A Research Task: Accomplice Liability
Chapter 12: Essay Mechanics
A Problematic Contract
Capitalization
Commas
Apostrophes
Format
Chapter 13: Writing Practice
Murder
Attempts
More Practice with Negligence
Bigamy
Ignorance of the Law
Chapter 14: Writing about a Novel
Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre
Bigamy
Reliability of Testimony
Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress
Chapter 15: Writing about Film
Tips for Writing about Film
Employment Law
The Devil Wears Prada
Family Law
Muriel’s Wedding
Insanity
Heavenly Creatures
Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find”
Sexual Offenses
Notes on a Scandal
Murder
Scotland, PA
Intentional Torts
Definition of intentional torts
Defenses to intentional torts
The Wizard of Oz
