Online Legal Writing Center

All Penn State Law students have access to the Online Legal Writing Center, a valuable resource for students as they work to improve and polish their writing skills.  

Writing Tools

The Online Legal Writing Center includes Writing Tools developed by retired Writing Specialist Professor Mary Kaye Polacheck. Professor Polacheck recognizes that learning legal writing is similar to learning a new language. Tools include a video that helps students with transitioning to legal writing and other educational videos and tutorials about sentence structure, grammar, and punctuation rules. Students also can find practice exercises, writing tips, and other useful materials.

Use of Authority and Attribution 

Developed by Associate Dean Nicole Chong, who is the associate dean and professor of legal writing, this section contains materials to help students understand how to use legal authority effectively and how to avoid committing plagiarism in legal writing. The materials provide general information about these topics, links to law school and university materials about academic integrity, and tutorials and exercises about using legal authority and attribution.

Other Resources 

The Online Legal Writing Center includes resources to help students with other writing issues, including information about citation, scholarly and seminar papers, and judicial opinions.  In addition, resources for students where English is their second language can be found.