Welcome to the Writing Center at Georgetown Law. The Writing Center's purpose
is to provide students and faculty members with feedback on the writing
process and on written work. Students can make appointments to discuss
questions while writing any paper. Questions may include the following topics.
- Researching strategically
- Overcoming writer’s block
- Rewriting effectively
- Revising for specific audiences and purposes
- Writing more efficiently
- Organizing notes
- Organizing documents
- Mastering English for Legal Purposes
- Connecting legal substance to organization
- Connecting legal substance to precise syntax
- Writing well on exams
- Finding an interesting paper topic
- Drafting a scholarly paper outline
- Using footnotes in scholarly writing
Senior Writing Fellows at the Writing Center can offer a number
of techniques to address the writing process, whether in a scholarly
paper, practical piece for a clinic, or assignment in the first
year course.
- GETTING STARTED: Formulating issues, narrowing
topics, doing preemption checks, and researching effectively.
- OVERCOMING WRITER'S BLOCK: Building a paper one
part at a time, avoiding the clash of creativity with criticism,
overcoming fear of the subject matter, or narrowing the scope of
the project.
- WRITING ANALYTICALLY: Focusing the legal reader;
making sure issues and thesis statements assist the reader; organizing
logically; analyzing, rather than describing, the legal problem;
using authority, rather than writing around it; making an argument,
rather than reporting; synthesizing material, rather than listing
it.
- TRIMMING EXCESS: Re-reading and re-viewing one’s
own work, viewing the product from a critical legal reader's eyes
rather than solely from the writer's, cutting what the reader does
not need, adding what the reader does, and getting rid of extra
verbiage.
- ACHIEVING ELEGANCE: Making effective transitions,
using topic strings, writing concisely, choosing words carefully,
and using punctuation for effect.
The Writing Center is located in the Legal Research & Writing
Office in McDonough Hall at the Georgetown University Law Center.
The address is:
600 New Jersey Avenue, NW
Room 540
Washington, DC 20001
The Writing Center is open by appointment only. Clients sign up for appointments for conferences in the Writing Center appointment book located outside the Legal Research & Writing Office, room 540 McDonough Hall. Evening appointments are also available. The Writing Center is open during the fall and spring semester. The Writing Center is closed during exams, during the summer and winter breaks, and academic holidays. Conferences are held in McDonough Hall Room 535.
Papers must be turned in at least twenty-four hours before
the scheduled conference times. Papers and requests for appointments
for Monday conferences should be turned in by the previous Friday.
For more information, please contact The Writing Center at (202) 662-9529
or writingcenter@law.georgetown.edu
The Writing Center gains its strength from its talented and diverse
faculty, staff, and fellows.
Senior Writing Fellows
Senior Writing Fellows at The Writing Center provide feedback
on all aspects of writing. For scholarly writing, these may
include choosing a topic, doing complex scholarly research, organizing
a large paper, revising for strong voice, and checking accuracy of
citations. For first year writing, these may include improving
the paper's analysis, writing effective headings, making good analytical
transitions, or using authority more forcefully. Senior Writing Fellows do not provide proofreading or editorial services. Every client
brings a new question to The Writing Center, and Senior Writing Fellows
work cooperatively to explore and answer those questions.
All Senior Writing Fellows hold three conferences a week at The
Writing Center. Students submit their papers 24 hours ahead
of time along with a questionnaire. In these conferences, the
Senior Writing Fellow acts as a reference, guide, reader, and sometimes
expert.
Senior Writing Fellows also attend the Applied Legal Composition
Seminar taught by faculty. The class explores various writing topics, such as audience,
style, ESL writing, and the foibles of writing samples, and often
analyzes texts submitted to The Writing Center to develop ideas and
techniques for conferences.
2008-2009 Senior Writing Fellows:
- Sarah Fox
- Prashina Gagoomal
- Kirk Maag
- Michael McGinley
- Felicia Mitchell
- Kala Sherman-Presser
- Matthew Smith
- Amy Thayer
- Noelle
Adgerson, Executive Assistant, (202) 662-9525
Noelle Adgerson has supervised the administration of The Writing
Center since its inception in 1991. She is an invaluable
source of assistance and information and is the friendly face of
The Writing Center.
Students at Georgetown University Law Center enjoy numerous opportunities
to improve and share their writing:
- Nationwide writing competitions are listed in the weekly newsletter,
What's Happening. Additional information
about these competitions is available in the Assistant Dean's Office
located in McDonough Hall Room 352.
- Georgetown's law journal community
also offers writing-intensive opportunities for students.
- The expansive curriculum of the Law Center features many courses
that sharpen students' writing skills. These include writing-specific
classes, clinics, and seminars.
