Problem Questions for Law Students A Study Guide

PART A – About Problem Questions

Part A aims

Understanding CLEO questions

Understanding Problem Questions

The CLEO stages

Understanding the CLEO process

A non-legal work through

Part B aims

Identifying CLAIMS in a PQ

Researching skills

Order, order

CLAIM

LAW

EVALUATION

OUTCOME

SQE writing

Writing SQE1 answers

Writing SQE2 answers

Part C aims

Plagiarism & types of academic misconduct

Citing and Referencing

Citations

Books

Journal Articles

Case law

UK statues

Parts of an Act

Websites

Judges’ abbreviations

Directly citing judges

Judges citing judges

Adapting sources to suit sentence structure

Law report abbreviations

Styling and Formatting

Abbreviations in case names

Bibliography

Other forms of assessment

Written assessments

Oral assessments

Student answers with lecturer commentary

Bank of Problem Questions

Using a statute as Problem Question research

Using primary sources to answer a Problem Question

Creating a CLEO plan from statute research

Identification sheet

Planning sheet

Researching sheet

Flashcard ideas

Template writing sheets

PART A – About Problem Questions

PART B – Researching & Writing

PART C – Academic Skills

Further Reading

Biography

Geraint Brown is the Coordinator of English for Specific Purposes and a tutor of English for Academic Purposes at Swansea University. Since 2008, he has taught UK and international students who are about to start their LLMs at Southampton University, as well as master’s and undergraduate law students at Swansea University where he is the Coordinator of the Law Pre-sessional course. He specialises in developing, teaching and delivering medical English, English for Sports, English for Academics, English for International Lecturers in UK universities and, of course, legal English. He is Chair and a panel member of the Academic Integrity Committee deciding on cases where students have been suspected of committing academic misconduct and unfair practice, and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA).

"As a qualified CELTA English teacher and an international PhD candidate studying and teaching world trade law in the UK, it is really a pleasure to witness the publication of such a brilliant book on legal academic English. Owing to the instructive content and the clear structure, Geraint’s book has made not only a practical course material for any English tutors but also an easy-to-follow self-study guidance for law students who are seeking language tutorials. The English learning habits of non-native speakers appear to be well considered by the author. Consequently, I strongly recommend the book to any legal English tutors and international students who are about to be engaged in a law-related course in an English-speaking country."

Dr Cherry Kaiyuan Chen

"Brown’s book aims to fill this gap in available resources, breaking down the process of unpacking a PQ task and constructing a coherent answer. The writer is an EAP practitioner and therefore this book foregrounds language as integrated in content. This is typically not the case in previously published legal EAP resources, as Candlin et al. noted (2002:302). The book is therefore clearly distinguishable from other available writing guides from law content specialist authors, which often provide only a few cursory, separate notes on language. It also presents law content and sections on referencing and study skills, (e.g., researching law databases). Overall, this book is focussed on academic language and literacy development for law within a process writing approach. [T]he benefit of an EAP practitioner’s specific insights within a specific academic domain is a defining feature of this publication. In conclusion, this book fills a clear gap in the market as a language in content approach to a specific subgenre of academic law writing. Its greatest value derives from how it comprehensively and expertly deconstructs PQ tasks, walking students through the process of writing. Language is integrated and fully contextualised within content, and explanations draw on the EAP author’s insider knowledge about the genre in practice. It is suitable for non L1 students and beginner/returning law students and provides for a range of law study contexts and areas of law."

Neil Adam Tibbetts, University of Bristol