ALWD Association of Legal Writing Directors

Scholarship Research Grants Application

APPLICATION PROCEDURES

  1. Eligibility: The Legal Writing Scholarship Grants, sponsored by ALWD & LWI are open to both full-time and adjunct teachers of legal writing and research. Teachers who have previously received an LWI or ALWD Summer Research Grant are ineligible for this program for three years after they have received such a grant. LWI and ALWD Board members, officers, and members of the Joint LWI-ALWD Scholarship Committee or the LWI Scholarship Development Committee are ineligible to participate until they have been out of those positions for a full academic year. LWI and ALWD encourage proposals from both veteran professionals and those new to the field.
  2. Deadline: Deadlines are set each year and announced on the Legal Writing and DIRCON listservs.
  3. Application materials:
  4.  Application (68 KB)
  5.  Sample Successful Application (123 KB)
  6. Review Process and Standards: The Proposal Description of the Grant Application, including the Detailed Description/Abstracts, will be blindly reviewed by the non-mentoring members of the Joint LWI-ALWD Scholarship Committee. Personal information will be removed from the application before reviewers see it. Those members will rank and rate the proposals based on the following criteria:
    • How well thought-out is the proposal?
    • Is the topic one that has previously been covered in therelevant literature? If so, does the proposed work addsomething substantive to the discussion?
    • Is the proposal well written?
    • Does the author seem to be targeting appropriate researchsources?
    • Is the scope of the project realistic?< /li>
    • Is the work likely to be published?
    • Is the proposed work related to Legal Writing?
    • If not, why not?
    • Is the topic interesting, and likely to appeal to targetedreaders?
    • Are the research methods (empirical research, multi-disciplinaryresearch, statistical analysis, traditional legal research) chosen likely to result in a good quality written product?

    Readers of the applications will not be privy to the identity of the applicant or to any of the identifying information available on the Application Form. Once the readers have scored and ranked the anonymous applications and have made their recommendations, the Joint Scholarship Committee will forward those recommendations to a Joint LWI-ALWD Boards of Directors Subcommittee formed to make the final grant decisions. The Joint Subcommittee will, at the time it makes its selections, have access to the information on the application forms in order to balance substantive review of the projects with due consideration for need (as reflected by eligibility for research grants at one's own institution).

    Whether a person is eligible for funding from their own school is a significant factor for the joint board subcommittee to weigh when awarding the grants. If a successful grant winner receives funding from another source after receiving an LWI-ALWD grant, the Legal Writing Scholarship Grants Sponsored by LWI-ALWD will be reduced by the amount of that funding. Recipients, however, may continue to publicize their status as a grant recipient in C.V.s or other documents.

  7. Selection date and grant disbursement: The committee will announce recipients of the research grants in April. At the time of selection, 60% of the research-grant award will be paid to each grant recipient. The grant recipient will receive the remaining 40% of the award when the written manuscript is completed and submitted to LWI and ALWD. Completed, for purposes of the grant, means that it has been accepted for publication. Grant recipients should submit the completed manuscript to the Joint LWI-ALWD Scholarship Committee along with a copy of the acceptance for publication.
  8. Mentors: At the time that the awards are announced, each grant recipient may be assigned a mentor by the Joint Scholarship Committee. It is the hope of ALWD-LWI that this mentor — chosen based upon the topic of the proposed scholarly work or any other criteria mutually agreed upon by the applicant and the Committee — will provide the recipient with guidance and assistance in developing the project through to completion and placing it for publication.
  9. Presentation: Papers supported by the Legal Writing Scholarship Grants sponsored by LWI & ALWD may be presented by the author at either the ALWD conference or the LWI biennial conference, but not both, by applying when ALWD or LWI sends out their next call for presentation proposals; such papers will be guaranteed a presentation slot at one of those conferences. This will allow the author the opportunity to share his or her scholarly efforts with the legal research and writing community, and also allow ALWD & LWI members to benefit first-hand from the scholarship supported by joint organization funding.
  10. Formalities: Grant winners should thank both LWI & ALWD for the grant in the footnotes of the article.
  11. Publication rights:Grant winners should negotiate permission from the publisher to post the article on the ALWD & LWI websites. This requirement can be waived if it would prevent placing the article in a well-regarded publication or require that the author purchase rights.