Writing Center Board members can also 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. These techniques include:

Getting Started:

• Formulating issue
• Narrowing topics
• Doing preemption checks
• 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
• 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 your own work
• Viewing the product from a critical legal reader's eyes rather than solely from yours
• Cutting what the reader does not need
• Adding what the reader does need
• Getting rid of extra verbiage

Achieving Elegance:

• Making effective transitions
• Using topic strings
• Writing concisely
• Choosing words carefully
• Using punctuation for effect