ALWD Association of Legal Writing Directors

News

Call for Applications 2012 ALWD Scholars' Workshops or Forums Grants
Deadline: At least 3 months before the date of the Workshop

To provide more opportunities for authors to receive input and feedback from their peers on their legal writing scholarship projects, the Association of Legal Writing Directors is offering up to four $650 grants to regional legal writing conference planners to host Scholars' Forums or Scholars' Workshops in conjunction with their regional conferences. In 2009, the Southeast, Northwest, Rocky Mountain, and Central States Regional Legal Writing Conferences hosted Scholars' Forums and/or Workshops. In 2010, Rocky Mountain and Empire States Regional Legal Writing Conferences hosted Scholars' Forums or Workshops. In 2011, the Empire States, the Capital Area, the Southeast, and the Rocky Mountain Legal Writing Conferences hosted Scholars' Forums or Workshops. Feedback on those events has been overwhelmingly positive.

Conference planners may choose from the following two options.

Scholars' Forums give legal writing scholars the chance to present their scholarship ideas, works-in-progress, or developed drafts of legal writing articles to a group of other legal writing faculty. In this setting, participants would have an opportunity to practice presenting and addressing questions about a scholarly paper. This event should be limited to sixteen participants, who can be divided into two groups of eight or four groups of four. In each group, each participant would have twenty minutes to present the scholarship, followed by a twenty-minute question and answer session. For sixteen participants, the event will last one day, or, if smaller groups are used, one-half day. ALWD recommends that each group have an "experienced scholar" to lead each group and help give feedback.

Scholars' Workshops give participants an opportunity to participate in peer review, with all the benefits of that process to readers and writers. These workshops are limited to sixteen participants, divided into groups of four. Participants must submit a paper in draft to the planners three weeks before the workshop. The planners will assign participants to groups of four. In assigning groups, planners should aim to promote diverse and constructive interactions. Each member of a group should receive the other three group members'papers at least one week in advance. Authors may request specific types of input from the small group on the paper. At the Workshop, each group of four would meet together to discuss the papers. For sixteen participants, the event could last anywhere from one-half day to a full-day.

To support conference planners and organizers in holding a Forum or Workshop (or some combination of the two), ALWD can provide model guidelines and other hosting information.

A $650 grant should be sufficient to provide breakfast and lunch to participants as well as cover other small incidentals related to the event. The host school is expected to provide necessary meeting space free of charge. Participants are expected to pay their own housing and transportation costs, which should be lessened because of coordination with the regional writing conference.


Deadline

Applications will be accepted from December 15, 2011 through September 30, 2012 for Workshops to be held during the 2012 calendar year. ALWD will accept applications on a rolling basis, but successful applications must be received at least three months before the date of the proposed Workshop. Since funds are limited, applicants are urged to apply as early as possible.

ALWD will review the applications and choose the grant recipients.


Requirements

  1. The Forum or Workshop must be hosted in conjunction with a regional conference. It might be scheduled for the day before or the day after the conference.
  2. The regional conference planners must provide at least two organizers for the Forum or Workshop. The organizers are responsible for the administration of the event.
  3. Based on past experience, ALWD strongly suggests that organizers include "experienced scholars" in the Forum Activities. Organizers may serve as the "experienced scholars."
  4. The Forum or Workshop must be made available on a first-come, first-served basis to individuals who otherwise meet the requirements for participation.
  5. The participants must be writing or speaking on scholarly legal writing topics (broadly defined) and pursuing the goal of writing an article to be placed in a law review, book, or similar scholarly outlet. For a Workshop, a completed draft of the paper must be available to organizers three weeks before the Workshop so that they could be distributed to other Workshop participants.
  6. Following the event, the conference planners and organizers must provide a written report to the ALWD Scholarship Committee that describes the event, the participants, and the participants' topics. They must also provide an accounting for how the money for the event was spent. ALWD encourages organizers to publicize the Forum or Workshop following the event.

To apply

Send an e-mail to Kate O'Neill at kateon@uw.edu that includes the following information:

  1. Names and Contact Information for Workshop/Forum organizers.
  2. Regional Conference and Date.
  3. Date proposed for Workshop/Forum.
  4. Whether the event will be a Workshop, Forum, or some combination of both and the organizers' basic plans for running the event.
  5. The Organizers' plan for soliciting participants as well as the plan for publicizing the Workshop or Forum after it is over (e.g., sending pictures or information to the Second Draft, the Legal Writing Blog, etc.).
  6. Any other information that the Organizers feel may be helpful.

For questions or more information:

Contact ALWD Scholarship Committee Co-Chairs Kate O'Neill or, David Cleveland.