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    Effective Academic Legal Writing. Essentially, This Course Builds On What You Have Learned in Legal

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    Tony George Puthucherril
    This document outlines the details of a 2-credit graduate academic writing seminar for an LLM program in environmental law, energy, and climate change. [The seminar aims to help students improve their legal writing skills and prepare for their dissertation work.] It provides learning outcomes, teaching methods, assessment criteria, a reading list, policies on plagiarism, and a class schedule. [The course utilizes interactive learning and written assignments to develop students' abilities in areas such as structure, style, grammar, and citations.]

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    Effective Academic Legal Writing. Essentially, This Course Builds On What You Have Learned in Legal

    Uploaded by

    Tony George Puthucherril
    73 views6 pages
    This document outlines the details of a 2-credit graduate academic writing seminar for an LLM program in environmental law, energy, and climate change. [The seminar aims to help students improve their legal writing skills and prepare for their dissertation work.] It provides learning outcomes, teaching methods, assessment criteria, a reading list, policies on plagiarism, and a class schedule. [The course utilizes interactive learning and written assignments to develop students' abilities in areas such as structure, style, grammar, and citations.]

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    G.WRITING (TGP)

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    This document outlines the details of a 2-credit graduate academic writing seminar for an LLM program in environmental law, energy, and climate change. [The seminar aims to help students improve their legal writing skills and prepare for their dissertation work.] It provides learning outcomes, teaching methods, assessment criteria, a reading list, policies on plagiarism, and a class schedule. [The course utilizes interactive learning and written assignments to develop students' abilities in areas such as structure, style, grammar, and citations.]

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    73 views6 pages

    Effective Academic Legal Writing. Essentially, This Course Builds On What You Have Learned in Legal

    Uploaded by

    Tony George Puthucherril
    This document outlines the details of a 2-credit graduate academic writing seminar for an LLM program in environmental law, energy, and climate change. [The seminar aims to help students improve their legal writing skills and prepare for their dissertation work.] It provides learning outcomes, teaching methods, assessment criteria, a reading list, policies on plagiarism, and a class schedule. [The course utilizes interactive learning and written assignments to develop students' abilities in areas such as structure, style, grammar, and citations.]

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    of 6

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    GRADUATE ACADEMIC WRITING SEMINAR


    (2 Credits)

    LLM in Environmental Law, Energy and Climate Change


    Winter Semester, 2020

    WWF-India & OP Jindal Global Law School

    Course Instructor: Dr. Tony George Puthucherril1


    (Office hours: No specific office timings, but you are free to meet me right after class)

    A. Course Overview and Objectives

    The primary objective of this course is to help students appreciate and learn techniques for simple but
    effective academic legal writing. Essentially, this course builds on what you have learned in Legal
    Research Methodology, and its primary purpose is to help students utilize certain tools relating to
    effective legal writing to support their dissertation work. As well, emphasis will also be laid on ethical
    legal writing.

    A. Specific Learning Outcomes

    At the end of this course, the student will be able to –

    1) Write in a structurally coherent manner


    2) Write simple, jargon-less, but effective sentences
    3) Write more active than passive sentences
    4) Be more aware of the rules regarding how to punctuate
    5) Employ the rules relating to citations

    B. Teaching Method

    The primary pedagogy for this course is the interactive method, based on the principle of “learning by
    doing”. This course is student-driven, and you are expected to actively participate in the class. Each
    class is centred around a specific theme relating to effective and simple writing. Prior to each class, a
    1
    In designing this course manual, I have referred to the Course Manual on “Graduate Academic Writing Seminar (2018)”
    prepared by Professor Sridhar Patnaik Dabiru, Chairperson for the Centre for Postgraduate Legal Studies, OP Jindal Global
    Law School. I thank him for his valuable support.
    specific assignment relating to the theme for the week will be circulated. The student is expected to
    complete the assignment, and, in the class, the same will be discussed. The idea is that these
    assignments will contribute significantly to the finalization of the dissertation. However, it must be
    noted that all matters relating to the content of the dissertation fall within the purview of the
    dissertation supervisor.

    C. Reading List
    Even though there is no specific reading list, relevant material will be distributed from time to time.

    Students may find the following book useful - A.J. Thomson & A.V. Martinet: A Practical English
    Grammar, 2 Volumes (Oxford India publication).

    D. Plagiarism
    Any idea, sentence, or paragraph that you cull from a web source must be credited with the source. If
    you paraphrase or directly quote from a web source in the exam, tutorials, or essays, the source must be
    mentioned. You SHOULD NOT feel free to plagiarize content, be it from scholarly sources, such as
    books and journal articles, or the Internet. The university has strict rules with consequences for students
    involved in plagiarism. As an issue of academic integrity, there will be a severe penalty.

    E. Assessment
    You will be assessed based on the following parameters -

    1.) Participation, Writing Papers, Presentations, Written Work, Attendance, Class


    Behaviour & Leadership (60%):

    Students should participate in the seminars actively. You will be assessed based on the indicators
    mentioned above. Active participation is defined to include completion of research related readings and
    tasks, contribution to class discussions and activities, peer reviews, and submissions of written material
    and adhering to all deadlines; individual study, preparation of writing plans; handing in and having
    accepted by the course instructor drafts of written assignments during the course.

    2) End Term Examination (40%): Mini Dissertation

    To obtain a pass for this course, students must obtain a minimum of 50% of total course marks.
    The following tables and factors will prove useful to understand how papers and
    presentations will be evaluated:

    Analysis of Works Turned In and Presented Assessment Criteria

    Excellent Comprehensive, accurate, and relevant;


    well-written, understandable, no jargons,
    with no significant grammar and
    punctuation errors.

    Good The expected level of work in terms


    of technical presentation and
    grammar.

    Average Lack of critical components in the work(s)

    Minimal/ Not Meeting Expectations Lack of several critical components/


    Ideas rehashed

    Grading Structure

    Please note the grades and their values below

    The following conversion criteria will be used between numeric and letter grades for
    this course:

    Letter Grade Value Total Course Marks Grade Definitions and


    Grade Explanation
    O 8 80 And Outstanding Sound knowledge of the subject
    Above matter, excellent organizational
    capacity, ability to synthesize ideas,
    rules, and principles, critically
    analyze existing, materials and
    originality in thinking and
    presentation.
    A+ 7.5 75 to 79 Excellent Sound knowledge of the subject
    matter, thorough understanding of
    issues, ability to synthesize ideas,
    rules and principles and critical and
    analytical ability
    A 7 70 to 74 Good Good understanding of the subject
    matter, ability to identify and
    provide balanced solutions to
    problems and good critical and
    analytical skills

    A- 6 65 to 69 Adequate Adequate knowledge of the subject


    matter to go to the next level of
    study and reasonable critical and
    analytical
    B+ 5 60 to 64 Average Decent Knowledge of the
    subject matter but average
    critical and analytical skills

    .
    B 4 55 to 59 Limited Limited knowledge of the subject
    matter and irrelevant use of
    materials and poor critical and
    analytical skills.

    B- 3 50 to 54 Marginal Poor comprehension of the subject or


    critical and analytical skills and
    marginal use of the relevant
    materials. Will require repeating the
    course.

    F 0 Below 50 Failure

    Class Schedule

    1. Framing your Thoughts for Academic Writing 7th Feb, 2020 (Friday) 5.30-8.30

    2. How to Phrase your Sentences 14th Feb, 2020 (Friday) 5.30-8.30

    3. How do you choose your Words 21st Feb, 2020 (Friday) 5.30-8.30

    4. Principles for Analytical and Persuasive Writing 28th Feb, 2020 (Friday) 5.30-8.30

    5. Principles for Analytical and Persuasive Writing 6th March, 2020 (Friday) 5.30-8.30

    6. How do you Punctuate 13th March, 2020 (Friday) 5.30-8.30

    7. Rules regarding Citations 27th March, 2020 (Friday) 5.30-8.30

    8. Avoiding Plagiarism 3rd April, 2020 (Friday) 5.30-8.30

    9. Summing Up & Observations 10th April, 2020 (Friday) 5.30-8.30

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