Academic Legal Writing - Eugene Volokh [129]
Finally, novel work is just more impressive—it better shows off your abilities. Even people who say they don't require novelty will often value a novel paper (all other things being equal) more than a paper that says what many others have said before.
B. Figuring Out What Your Instructor Expects
As you see, while most seminar papers have the same general requirements, different instructors do things differently. Your first task, then, is to ask about what your instructor expects. Does the instructor want the work to be novel (again, in the sense of novel to scholars, as opposed to just novel to you)? Does the instructor expect it to summarize the background legal principles, as well as setting forth a new proposal? Does the instructor prefer that you spend more time describing the law (to show that you've learned the subject matter well), instead of setting forth any suggested changes? Will the instructor give more credit for a topic that's designed to be as useful as possible to its fictional readers?
Many instructors will quickly give you and your classmates clear guidance on this. A few, though, might not have thought fully about the matter, which is why asking them for specifics can be helpful.
You're writing for an audience of one. Start by figuring out what that one person expects.
C. Finding a Topic
Topics for seminar papers are generally limited to the seminar's subject matter. Sometimes this limitation can be helpful: I suspect that many students struggle a long time to find a topic for a publishable article precisely because there are so many fields to choose from.
Here are a few ways you could find a topic.
1. Ask the teacher
Ask your professor to recommend some possible topics. Some teachers don't like to provide paper topics, since they think that finding a topic is part of the student's task; but others are more accommodating. Professors usually teach seminars in subjects that they like, that they write about, and that they read about. They therefore often have many topic ideas.
2. Pay attention to the readings
In most seminars, you end up reading recent academic papers. See what topics are flagged as unresolved by the readings, or are glossed over with only a shallow analysis. Don't frame your paper as a response to the particular article (see Part I.I.5, p. 37) unless your instructor tells you that this is fine. Organize it instead around the issue that you've identified from the readings.
3. Pay attention to the discussions
Listen carefully during class discussions. If classmates are debating a particular question and you see there's no clear answer, the question might be worth exploring further. Check with the instructor when you've identified such a topic, since you might end up using some insights that were first raised by classmates; but generally the instructor won't mind, because your written analysis of the subject will require vastly more thinking than the classmates' off-the-cuff statements did.
4. Pay attention to the news
Many seminar readings and class discussions mention recent events, which often contain the seed of an interesting article. What's more, immersing yourself in the class can lead you to notice interesting events in the news, or remember events that you heard about a few months before.
Don't feel constrained by the circumstances of a particular event, which may raise only a very narrow question, or have some unusual aspects. Use the event as a concrete example that helps you identify and confront a broader problem.
D. Budgeting Your Time
Students often have less time to write a seminar paper than a student article. Student