LAW Students' Scholarly Writing

It is critical that students writing a masters thesis, doctoral dissertation, or an article or student note for a law journal develop their topic into a thesis statement. These forms of legal scholarly writing require the author to do more than simply summarize existing literature or law. Authors can identify a problem they will attempt to resolve, propose a novel perspective or critique existing viewpoints on the matter, or report findings from empirical research, for example. The one sentence thesis statement informs the reader of what the author will be arguing or establishing in their paper. Authors may adapt their thesis statements as they undertake more in-depth research on the topic and realize there is insufficient secondary or primary legal materials discussing the subject or that their thesis is not novel, among other reasons.

Students writing seminar papers may also be expected to develop a thesis statement. Students should review their assignment’s requirements and grading rubric to determine if the omission of a thesis will affect their grade.