MY OPINION ABOUT THIS

Mr. Post gives a wonderful list of tips to keep in mind while performing legal research and writing. My favorite is his first tip. He describes the writing we do as a "windowpane" meaning it needs to be clear and concise. This resonated with me because this is all new to me, so it's hard sometimes to write in a clear way when I'm not 100% clear on what I'm writing yet. The rest of the tips describe exactly how to do that. The post describes pretending to be your reader so you can understand what they'll take from your writing through their eyes. He goes on to say you need to use precise, clear language and the writing should be persuasive. The best idea is to simplify. The easiest way to simplify is to have a strong grasp of what you're saying. This means reviewing the cases and revising your work repeatedly. This also means making sure the final product requires no further explanation and demonstrates exactly what you needed it to.

An ethical issue to keep in mind is the clarity of the "windowpane" writing. Again, this is all still so new to me. I think it will be very important for me to slow down and dissect the sources I'm using to fully understand what they're about. I can feel a little cloudy on a subject, so I phrase my work in ways thatconvey the case I'm citing, but not in ways that show I undertsnad why I'm citing it and exactly what the source means to me and my current case. It is not ethical to write in a way that is intentionally confusing to the reader.