Approved by Faculty Senate March 31, 2003

 

University Studies Course Approval

 

Department or Program: Paralegal

Course Number: 372

Semester Hours: 3

Frequency of Offering: every year

Course Title: Legal Research and Writing II

Catalog Description:

Students will learn to formulate legal research queries, gain a familiarity with the growing body of primary and secondary research materials on the World Wide Web, conduct legal research in hard copy volumes of primary and secondary legal research materials, analyze and simplify legal rules distilled from statutes and appellate cases, use proper legal citation, and develop the skill to transform quality legal research and analysis into well-organized, well-reasoned and well-written prose.

This is an existing course previously approved by A2C2: Yes

This is a new course proposal: No

Proposal Category: Critical Analysis Flag

Departmental Contact: Troy D. Paino, 5409

Email Address: tpaino@winona.edu

 

 

History 372

Legal Research Writing II – 3 s.h.

University Studies Critical Analysis Flag

Proposal and Rationale

Catalog Description: See Attached Syllabus

 

Course Objectives: See Attached Syllabus

 

The proposed course’s requirements and learning activities promote students’ ability to:

Recognize and evaluate appropriate evidence to advance a claim by learning the fundamentals of legal research. These fundamentals include the reading and critically analyzing of appellate judicial decisions, statutes and secondary legal research materials.

Apply critical analytical skills in making decisions or in advancing a theoretical position by taking their legal analysis of court opinions, statutes and legal commentary and formulating it into legal arguments in well-formulated and well-written legal writing, such as an internal memorandum.

Evaluate alternative arguments, decision strategies, or theories within a systematic framework by understanding the process of judicial review. This is the traditional method of learning legal reasoning. Students will then be expected to present alternative legal arguments in commonly used forms of legal writing (briefs, memoranda, etc.)