Prompt: A Journal of Academic Writing Assignments

This special issue explores writing assignments given in legal writing courses at the undergraduate level and early in the law-school curriculum, assignments at the threshhold of law school. Lawyers are familiar with the motion in limine, which advocates make to judges, for example, to exclude expert witnesses or evidence before the jury sees them. The Latin term limen refers to the threshold of a home, so the motion occurs on the threshold. Law students, too, must cross the threshold from undergraduate study to professional school, and that transition is not thoroughly studied. Among the many challenges students face while in limine are the requirements of a more formal type of writing in law school than that for which their undergraduate training has prepared them. But many students come to law school having taken some kind of undergraduate writing class focused on legal writing. Meanwhile, critical scholarship and current events counsel some skepticism regarding the conventions of legal communication and rhetoric. Into this environment come teachers who are often contingent workers or hold lower status (whether at the undergraduate or law-school level). Understanding the types of writing assignments these teachers assign is thus important to legal training, the legal profession, and the broader culture.