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Writing Assignment I

Assignment 1: Due 12pm (noon) **Wednesday** March 5, 2025

For your first writing assignment, please write five to seven pages (I presume 250 words per page) in response to any paper in the optional readings for classes up to March 5, so long as that paper is (1) marked with an asterisk (*) AND (2) appears in a class’s readings other than one for which you were a panelist.

My idea of a good ‘response paper’ accomplishes at least one of two things:

  1. Takes an idea in the article and applies it to something outside the article’s scope in order to show how the article applies well there as well, AND/OR
  2. It explains a flaw in the paper’s argument,
    1. usually as lacking either
      1. some important fact or perspective (perhaps found in a different article?), or
      2. making a clearly false assumption.
    2. Note, however that you should
      1. Attack ideas, not people.
      2. Recognize that your opponent isn’t stupid, misguided, or out of touch. He or she simply hasn’t weighed your position sufficiently.

My idea of an inferior response paper is one that:

  1. Does little more than repeat the paper’s arguments, or repeat an explicit critique found in another assigned (not optional) paper, or
  2. Substantially repeats class lecture or discussion without adding a significant new idea

In other words, better papers will:

  1. Demonstrate you understand the paper you are discussing, and
  2. Of critical importance, do something original — at least in the sense of going beyond the materials provided to you in the readings and in class — with the material in the paper.

The due date for this assignment is 12pm (noon) **Wednesday** March 5, 2025. I only give extensions if you either ask BEFORE the due date (and rarely then) or if you suffer an unforeseeable calamity. My advice is to plan to turn the paper in a day early to avoid any issues…

General guidance

Please pay careful attention to my “legal writing tips” (but skip Part 1 on “Picking a Topic” as that applies to longer papers). It is probably best to treat the ‘tips’ as “requirements”.

However, despite what it says in the ‘writing tips’, I’ll only require a good faith attempt at blue booking; you won’t be graded on picky stuff if you get it wrong (but please try anyway).  However, if citing to a web page be sure to give the following information:  Author, Title, Publication, Date, URL.

Please don’t forget to make clear in your first paragraph what reading you are responding to. Your first paragraph ought also to telegraph your conclusion.  It follows from this that writing tips 2.8 – 2.11 will be particularly important to you.

I will downgrade any paper without page numbers, and reserve the right to downgrade one step for every three passives found in the paper.  [Yes, that is an example of a passive; active versions would be, “every three passives that I find in the paper” or “every three passives that you put in the paper”.]

Additional Requirement

Attach a statement on a separate page a the end describing in some detail (e.g. prompts) what use you made of AI writing tools including chatbots.  Include a statement even if you did not use one at all.  This statement will not alter your grade unless is is absent or there is strong evidence it is inaccurate.

If you are using any significant amount of AI-generated text, please identify what it is and what prompt you used.

Do feel free not to use an AI at all!  But if you do, please walk me through what you did and whether and how it was useful (or not).

This statement will not count towards the word/page limit.

How to Turn in Your Paper

Please create a Word file containing your text that does not have your name in any of these places:

  • in the filename (including the title page)
  • nor on the file
  • nor in the file metadata. Information on removing metadata can be found here and here and with the assistance of your friendly internet search engine.

Please include your midterm AGN on the paper. Email that file to my assistant,Caitlyn Rose Campana <crcampana@law.miami.edu>, who will launder it of any remaining identifying marks in the filename and send it on to me for anonymous assessment.

Please let me know if you have any questions about any of the above.