Legal Writing: Tips From Fiction

Michelle Falkoff, University of Iowa College of Law, has published Lessons from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop: Using Fiction Workshop Teaching Techniques in the First-Year Legal Writing Classroom, forthcoming in the Journal of Legal Education. 

The ability to critique one’s own work is invaluable to writers in every field, but teaching students how to critique their work and the work of others is one of the most difficult lessons to impart. The goal of this Article is to talk about ways that legal writing teachers can incorporate fiction workshop techniques as a means of teaching students the art of critiquing their own and others’ writing. In particular, this Article focuses on the workshop techniques employed at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and the development of a common language for discussing writing in group settings.

Download the article from SSRN at the link.