Vol. 56, No. 7, January 24, 2006 University of Michigan Law School
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University of Michigan Law School University of Michigan Law School Scholarship Repository Res Gestae Law School History and Publications 2006 Vol. 56, No. 7, January 24, 2006 University of Michigan Law School Follow this and additional works at: http://repository.law.umich.edu/res_gestae Part of the Legal Education Commons Recommended Citation University of Michigan Law School, "Vol. 56, No. 7, January 24, 2006" (2006). Res Gestae. Paper 99. http://repository.law.umich.edu/res_gestae/99 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Law School History and Publications at University of Michigan Law School Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Res Gestae by an authorized administrator of University of Michigan Law School Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. NEWSPAPER oF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN LAw ScHooL Vol. 56 No.7 January 24, 2006 Write This Down, Poindexter: 3Ls and Profs Give Note Taking Tips By Bria LaSalle. and the professor said (in the ea r, through verbatim can leave one confused when Andrea Hunt the brain, out the fingers); 3) when it co mes time to ma ke an outline. reviewing, I find it helpful to have the s the newsemes ter gets fully professor's co mments when I have a Ot hers are mo re selective in what they underway and Fa ll grades better understanding of the material." write down during class. Talia Dubovi begin to ad vises that "notes are tri , you may iiiii;]l!l'!=:l�:j;;:---.:2iii�/����iliiJi�=_,-...,., better if yo u actually think find yo urself armed about what yo u write with new resolve do wn. They are also mo re to take better notes, manageable at the en d of participate more, and the semester-you have study harder. Which less to read through." approach should yo u take? RG asked 3Ls Damon Lewis an d professors to ask recommen ds selectivity what ha s wo rked in preparing notes before fo r them, an d what class as well. "Trying to advice they have fo r over-prepare a lengthy law students looking brief of ea ch ca se before to fine-t une their co ming to class is a waste academic machine. of time. Chances are yo u'll probably fo cus on the When asked about wrong things. I write a few note-taking, the 3L brief senten ces about the responses fell on a While some students take near-verbatim lecture notes, others opt for a more facts, a senten ce about the broad spectrum, ranging passive, nigh-subliminal approach. big issue, and a paragraph from taking almost no notes during class about the holding. Then I fill in the rest to transcribing the professor's every A key component of the stenographer's as it comes up in class." wo rd. approach is on-going review of both the assigned reading material an d in So me st udents prefer to use class "My method is the stenogra pher's class notes. Saving a la rge bundle of time to so lidify the informat ion they've approach: I type down everything the class tran scriptions until the en d of assimilated from the readings an d notes pro fessor says," reports Richard Lee. the semester creates a daunting task of they've prepared outside the classroom. "This wo rks fo r me because: 1) it fo rces so rting ri�C9J."\QeJ1S�P U!ili-1�� bU �cP ·· me to pay attention; 2) it makes me in fo nmti lc'Me �lt � t'f.ef, think (nominally, anyway) about what that taking\ M Ndo�n the professor's wo rds CONTINUED on Page 19 JAN 2 5 Z006 2 �es (�eshte • iTJmm«r� 24, 200fi 21\ts (1?)ts±at Editorial: First-Day Reading 3£llYl Sfi. }ITo. 7 �nifmsit� ll'f �id1igan 1Jlaw �clroll'l Board Should Be Online Editor-i11-CI1ief ve< the bawmetc< of student its students to remain in e-mail contact to Alike Afwph_v body needs and desires, the receive course announcements. Also, as �'J[lawopen] e-mail listserve was the recent heated debate over basement Executive Editor: ab · arly this month with requests for bulletin boards suggests, display space 1\Iatt Nolan homework. This was not masochistic is at an absolute pren1ium. Wasting students asking for more reading, but of valuable wall space on a board that is only Alanaging Editor: dutiful students trying to findout what marginally useful for a few days out of Steven Boender reading had already been assigned. the year seems either an inefficient use of resources or a stubborn bow to tradition. Conlributing Editors: Before the first day of class, students Patrick Bany, Adam Blumenkrantz, must learn the first day's reading We understand and appreciate deference Dan Clad;;, Antonia Eliason, assignment in one of several ways. to tradition; after all, we're using the same Diana Geseking, Anne Gonion, The traditional method is checking the obscure name for our publication that it A/itch Holzrichte�; Andrea Hunt, bulletin board outside of where had in 1898. If ulta-traditionalists insist on Nate Ku11is, Bria LaSalle, Liz Polizzi, 120 HH x a physical bulletin board, we reconm1end Beverzv Sclmeidn; 1\ fiche lie Shwpe, each cl ass is assigned a 3" 5" card. Jay Suniukowski, Kim T110mpson Printed on that card is the first day's that the law school set up an internet reading assignment and any quick facts camera and broadcast the board live on about that class. By the first day of class the web, allowing st udents, many of Res Gestae is published biweekly during the school this semester, only about one-third of whom spend summers and breaks away year by students of the UniversitY ofMichigan Law classes had a reading assigmnent posted from Hutchins, to view their reading SchooL Opinions expressed in bylined articles on this board. assigm11entsonline. are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the opinions of the editorial staffArticles with contact infonnation in ita!ics at the end of the Another way students might learn We kid, of course. That said, the bulletin m1icle or "submitted by'' in the byline are opinion a class's first reading assignment is board must yield to progress. The "wailing pieces. not factual news stmies, and the opinions wall," where students used to see their contained therein are not necessarily reflective through an e-mail, generally sent by a of the opinions of the editorial staff Res Gestae Professor's secretary, to alist of students semester grades posted by exam ID, has articles will occasionally contain adult language enrolled in the course. been replaced by the mucl1 more genteel, if and are not intended f()r readers under 18. A11icles quirky,Wolverine Access system. There's may be reprinted without pem1ission. provided that Yet another way is through the no reason why the same cmmot happen the mrthor rmdRes Gestae arecredited and notified. Res Gestae welcomes submissio11s and letters to inclusion of a syllabus in a coursepack with first-day assignments. the editor. Submissions may be made via email, that students can buy before classes start. preferably as an MS Word attachment. Letters This option is made even less efficient The school should establish a web page, of the editor nmst be clearly m1d unambig110s ly since, often, students don't know if a publicly accessible, with a posting of the marked "Letter to the Editor.·· Res Gestae reserves the right to editall submissions and letters to editor class has a coursepack until they check first reading assigmnents and, if available, in the interes1 of space. a separate bulletin board in the Reading a syllabus for each course. Students could Room. Worse still, a coursepack may not not only learn the reading assignments Mailing address: actually contain the syllabus. of all classes in one area, but tl1ey could Res Gestae University of Michigan Law School also survey the co urses in more detail 625 South State St. For students who are on a waitlist or than allowed by the space-restricted Ann Arbor. MI 481 09 not enrolled in a class, they must ask two-paragraph descriptions posted on the their friends or place themselves at the Course Description List. Web Site Address: http://students.law.um ich.edu/rg dubious mercy of [lawopen]. If this all seems inefficient to yo u, you may be Compiling this list would be, admittedly, Office: right. We have some ideas to help smooth another task for a busy administrative 116 Legal Research the pre-first day of class co mmunication staff. But the idea of a comprehensive for students and faculty. list of assignments for courses is not as foreiS'll as it may seem. A book list - - -- - - - --- - -- The assignment bulletin board, simply, for each semester is already posted has to go. It is underutilized and obsolete [email protected] at a school that all but explicitly requires CONTINUED on Page 21 �cs (tf}cshtc • JJ;:muaq:.! 24, 2006 3 South MricanJustice Gives MLK Talk By Antonia Eliason in the U.S. It was in 1963 at the centenary and iden ti fy shortcomings, engaging ® of the Emancipation Proclam.ation that in national debate to determine how n January 16, in celebration King made his historic "I have a dream" to achieve their goals. Justice Mo kgoro ot_ Martin Luther King Jr. speech. As Justice Mokgoro said, "those compared this to the United States ten Day, stu dents and faculty wo rds uttered by MLK still resonate years after the birth of the civil rights fi lled 250 Hutchins Hall to hear Justice n1ore than 40 years later." It is now movement, when Martin Luther King Jr.