Dovetailing language and content: teaching balanced argument in legal problem answer writing

Abstract

This paper describes an approach to teaching first-year law students how to write the academic genre of the legal problem answer. The approach attempts to offer students the rhetorical tools to translate legal reasoning moves into an effective written response to legal problems. The English for Academic Purposes (EAP) course in question shadows one specific law course, Tort, and is the outcome of close and continuing collaboration with the teachers of that course. The dovetailing of language and content involved considerable research into the law of tort, and into the legal reasoning moves required to analyse the legal problem question genre, as well as to compose an effective and economical answer to such questions. The paper highlights the importance of balanced argument in legal discourse, and shows how the rhetorical elements of concession, contingency and end-focus can serve to help students distil persuasive, pertinent and economical problem answers. The paper offers examples of how this can be achieved in an EAP course, and it concludes by exploring the applicability of these ideas and strategies to other areas of EAP.