DeanWuBlog

Reading and Writing

I was shocked once to have met a law student who confided to me that he didn’t realize the profession would require so much reading, and, furthermore, he didn’t like to read. I was tempted to advise him he had made a mistake and it would was not too late to withdraw from the first year. Upon reflection, however, I realized he likely had not been encouraged enough to value reading (and writing), and he also was actively misled by the portrayal of lawyers in the media – they hardly ever do any research, but instead appear to rely on their oral advocacy, as if no preparation were needed for effective cross-examination.

Be that as it may, it is crucial for us as educators to cultivate a love of language. My scolding someone that the placement of a comma may turn out to be an issue worth millions of dollars, in a subsequent dispute, will not inculcate the sense that words are powerful enough to change the world, nor will it provide any training in how to make it so.

Perhaps I am naïve, but I believe that the internet will have a salutary effect. It is direct democracy in action, and it enables each of us to become an author capable of communicating with everyone else, cheaply and instantaneously. Our ability to blog or even twitter, on subjects mundane as well as profane, not only gives us power but also allows us to play. As we create, most of us will want to improve. We will want to have better audio and video recording, which is shifting the cultural toward a universal language that could not have been dreamed of (graphic and dynamic rather than literal and traditional), but we also will want to be more skilled in our diction and grammar. In that, we may have hope for advocacy.