Using a Book Critique as a Writing Assignment
by
Source
The Law Teacher, Volume 1, number 1 (Fall 1993), p. 8.
About the Author
David I. Levine is a professor of law at the University of California, Hastings College of the Law. Adeline G. Levine is an emeritus professor of sociology at the State University of New York at Buffalo. For a copy of their Guide to the Writing of Critiques, contact Prof. David Levine at Hastings College of the Law, University of California, 200 McAllister Street, San Francisco, CA 94102-4978, (415) 565-4600, FAX (415) 565-4865, e-mail: weinbgj@itsa.ucsf.edu.
From time to time, law professors have been encouraged to use writing assignments in their teaching. See, e.g., Kathleen Bean, The Use of Writing Assignments in Law School, 37 J. Legal Educ. 276 (1987). We have had good success in using a twelve- to fifteen-page book critique as a writing assignment in small classes for law students.
Law students are expected to digest an incredible number of appellate opinions, a fair number of substantive notes, and small dollops of law review articles in the typical law school course. They are almost never expected to read entire books, and certainly never given the opportunity to relate such reading to their core assignments. The book critique is useful as a guided exercise, which enables the students to focus their thoughts about a subject through the prism of describing and reacting to an author's complete presentation in a book.
In our teaching, we have handed out a list of "approved" readings from which the students may choose a book for this exercise. Of course, we have also allowed the students to select their own book, with permission. We hand out a critique guide with the list of books. In order to enable students to benefit from the reading that others in the class have done, we require students to turn in the critiques about one month before the end of the term. We find that students then refer to their particular books in class discussions.
