NDLI: Building an evolving method and materials for teaching legal writing in large classes

Content Provider	Springer Nature Link
Author	Clarence, Sherran Albertus, Latiefa Mwambene, Lea
Copyright Year	2013
Abstract	In South Africa and in other parts of the world, many professions are bemoaning the poor ability of many graduates to communicate their skills and knowledge effectively once they enter the workplace. Increasingly, pressure is placed on higher education to do more in terms of equipping future professionals with the necessary critical reading, research, thinking and writing skills the workplace demands. However, in South Africa especially, the demand for access to higher education is resulting in increased admissions, and in many lecturers standing in front of larger classes filled with students from a wide range of home and educational backgrounds with ‘variable’ commands of English as a medium of instruction and communication (Greenbaum and Mbali in S Afr Linguist Appl Lang Stud 20:233–244, 2002). This makes the task of equipping these students with disciplinary knowledge and skills a challenge. In responding to this challenge, the Law Faculty at the University of the Western Cape, in collaboration with a writing specialist, initiated a project aimed at transforming the way in which legal writing was taught at first year level. The overall aim was to start training students, from first year, to adapt their thinking and writing to the kinds of knowledge and practice required by academic study as well as the legal profession. The project was successful in achieving its modest aims, but certain challenges remain. This paper reflects critically on the development and evolution of the model for teaching legal writing in large classes. It argues that teaching legal writing in large classes requires creative and sustainable approaches so that students can become active and critical writers, readers and thinkers over time in this, or any, field.
Starting Page	839
Ending Page	851
Page Count	13
File Format	PDF
ISSN	00181560
Journal	Higher Education
Volume Number	67
Issue Number	6
e-ISSN	1573174X
Language	English
Publisher	Springer Netherlands
Publisher Date	2013-12-17
Publisher Place	Dordrecht
Access Restriction	One Nation One Subscription (ONOS)
Subject Keyword	Academic literacies Academic writing Collaboration Discourse Large class teaching Law Legal writing Higher Education
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Education Law

Sl.	Authority	Responsibilities	Communication Details
1	Ministry of Education (GoI), Department of Higher Education	Sanctioning Authority	https://www.education.gov.in/ict-initiatives
2	Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	Host Institute of the Project: The host institute of the project is responsible for providing infrastructure support and hosting the project	https://www.iitkgp.ac.in
3	National Digital Library of India Office, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	The administrative and infrastructural headquarters of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in
4	Project PI / Joint PI	Principal Investigator and Joint Principal Investigators of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in Prof. Saswat Chakrabarti will be added soon
5	Website/Portal (Helpdesk)	Queries regarding NDLI and its services	support@ndl.gov.in
6	Contents and Copyright Issues	Queries related to content curation and copyright issues	content@ndl.gov.in
7	National Digital Library of India Club (NDLI Club)	Queries related to NDLI Club formation, support, user awareness program, seminar/symposium, collaboration, social media, promotion, and outreach	clubsupport@ndl.gov.in
8	Digital Preservation Centre (DPC)	Assistance with digitizing and archiving copyright-free printed books	dpc@ndl.gov.in
9	IDR Setup or Support	Queries related to establishment and support of Institutional Digital Repository (IDR) and IDR workshops	idr@ndl.gov.in

‘It’s not fair’: policy discourses and students’ understandings of plagiarism in a New Zealand university

Massification in higher education: large classes and student learning

Critical Discourse Analysis and Academic Literacies: My Encounters with Student Writing

Knowing your students in large diverse classes: a phenomenographic case study

Implications of academic literacies research for knowledge making and curriculum design

"Academic Literacies" as Moving beyond Writing: Investigating Multimodal Approaches to Academic Argument

Teaching large classes in an increasingly internationalising higher education environment: pedagogical, quality and equity issues

Tutoring the end-of-studies dissertation: helping psychology students find their academic voice when revising academic texts

A critical perspective on large class teaching: the political economy of massification and the sociology of knowledge

Building an evolving method and materials for teaching legal writing in large classes

Similar Documents

‘It’s not fair’: policy discourses and students’ understandings of plagiarism in a New Zealand university

Massification in higher education: large classes and student learning

Critical Discourse Analysis and Academic Literacies: My Encounters with Student Writing

Knowing your students in large diverse classes: a phenomenographic case study

Implications of academic literacies research for knowledge making and curriculum design

"Academic Literacies" as Moving beyond Writing: Investigating Multimodal Approaches to Academic Argument

Teaching large classes in an increasingly internationalising higher education environment: pedagogical, quality and equity issues

Tutoring the end-of-studies dissertation: helping psychology students find their academic voice when revising academic texts

A critical perspective on large class teaching: the political economy of massification and the sociology of knowledge

Building an evolving method and materials for teaching legal writing in large classes