Welcome to LS100, Eight Skills of the Effective Legal Studies Student!

1. Reading2. Writing 3. Research4. Planning5. Thinking6. Organizing7. Interviewing8. Communicating

Two books for this course: Cornerstone: Building on Your Best for Career Success (2006).

Authors: Sherfield, Montgomery, and Moody; Published by Pearson/Prentice Hall. ISBN: 0-13-195825-9, and

Rules for Writers (6th ed., 2009). Author: Diana Hacker; Published by Bedford/St. Martin's. ISBN: 0-312-66481-8.

Each chapter of these books can be accessed under the “Doc Sharing” tab and in each unit under the “Reading” topic.

•Course Description/Course Outcomes•Course Calendar with Assignments•Grading Criteria/Grading Scale•Policies: Plagiarism, 5th Week Policy, Late Policy•Tutoring – Writing Center• Seminars, Discussion Boards, and Netiquette

Course consists of 10 Units (weeks) – each unit starts on Wednesday morning and ends the following Tuesday at midnight.

Each Unit (except for Units 5 and 10) has a seminar, reading assignment, and one or two discussion questions to answer, and most units also contain a quiz.

Written assignments are due in Units 1, 4, and 9 in this class and must be submitted to the Dropbox.

Campus Tour – From your KU Campus Page (where your classes are listed), click on “Campus Tour” in the column in the right column under “Quick Links”; and

Navigating the Classroom – In the LS100 classroom, click on “Course Home” in the column to the left of the screen and click on the “Navigation” icon.

Be sure to use the column to the left of the classroom – click on Course Home or the Unit you want to go into; then you’ll see all the icons for Intro, Reading, Discussion, Seminar, Assignments, and Quiz;

Click on the “To Do” list and print it to be sure you hit all your assignments;

Click on the drop-down menu to the top right of the classroom when you’re in a unit to go through all the required assignments.

Reading: Chapter 2 in Cornerstone, pages 34 – 35 and 38 – 49; Discussion: Click on “Unit 1” in the column to the left of the classroom

and then click on “Introductions” to post an introduction to your classmates – be sure to provide details about your degree program and explain why you chose this degree and include some info about your life that you’d like to share;

Online Exercises: Register for Rules for Writers Website and Explore Online Careers (Click on Activities icon to get to these assignments);

Ideal Career Assignment: 1 – 2 page essay about your ideal career – be sure to see the questions you should focus on in the assignment;

Seminar

1 to 2 page essay (300 – 400 words) describing your ideal career in the law (or public administration, environmental policy) Be sure to see the grading rubric for this assignment by clicking on the Doc Sharing tab in the classroom, then under the LS100 category – the document is called “LS100 grading rubrics.doc.”

What is your career goal and what is it that draws you toward this career?

What sparked your interest in the law in the first place? In what type of environment would you like to work (a large or small

law firm, nonprofit organization, state or federal governmental agency, etc.)?

What opportunities will open to you as a result of a college education? Save your essay as a Microsoft Word (.doc) document and submit it to

the Dropbox no later than Tuesday, March 29th by midnight.

There are tons of possibilities for attorneys and paralegals when it comes to careers in the law … besides working for a law firm or in a corporate legal department, there are many excellent jobs in state and federal agencies. For a sampling of jobs with the federal government, go to http://jobsearch.usajobs.gov/advanced.aspx and under “Occupational Series,” highlight either “Attorney” or highlight “Law Clerk,” “Legal and Claims Examining,” “Legal and Kindred,” and “Legal Assistant” to get a sampling of careers for attorneys and paralegals with the federal government.

FBI Special Agent – what a cool job this would be! Check it out at: http://www.fbijobs.gov/111.asp.

The cool thing about the law is that you can work to change things for the better, such as fighting for causes such as civil rights, domestic violence, animal rights, etc.

For example, check out the Animal Legal Defense Fund website at http://aldf.org and see how you can sign up as a Paralegal Member of the Animal Legal Defense Fund: http://www.aldf.org/article.php?id=269.

The Academic Support Center (ASC) contains: Math Center Writing Center (which offers Writing Tutors, Paper Review

and Q & A Services, a Writing Reference Center with helpful articles, and workshops on writing and citations)

Science Center Technology Center Disability Services Center

To access the ACS, click on the “My Studies” tab from your KU Campus page and then click on “Academic Support Center.

To effectively argue a case or point in the law, it’s essential to support your argument with citations to cases, statutes, and other reliable sources. When answering Discussion Questions or writing papers in your classes, follow the motto, “Show me the Law!” (just like the Jerry Maguire movie motto, “Show me the Money!”)

The rule for avoiding plagiarism is whenever you use words from a source, put quotation marks around those words and cite your source. In many cases of plagiarism, students do not intend to plagiarize, but take notes or copy and paste material from a source and don’t bother to keep track of the citation for the source. Plagiarism is a serious offense, whether it’s done with intent to copy or by mistake. See the “KU Plagiarism Policy” in Doc Sharing for more details on avoiding plagiarism.

Show Me the Law and Cite Your Source and you’ll be good to go!

American Psychological Association (APA) citation is required in psychology, social sciences, and similar disciplines. For your written assignment in Unit 2, here are some resources to help you get started with APA format:

See “Basic Guidelines for APA Citations” document in Doc Sharing in our classroom;

See Rules for Writers, Chapters 60 and 61 in Doc Sharing (click on the one that says “Writing APA Papers,” pages 476 – 528);

See the Purdue OWL (Online Writing Lab) website at: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/02/ for info on In-Text Citations and then click on Reference Citations in the column to the left of the screen.

You might want to consider getting the “eazypaper” program for APA at: http://www.eazypaper.com/products.cfm (you can try a demo and a free trial) – it’s awesome!

I want to see you guys do awesome in this class and I’m here for any questions you may have – you can email me at [email protected] and I’ll have an answer for you right away or come to office hours on Thursday nights from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. Eastern - my AIM screen name is ProfMcEll.

Here’s to a wicked good term!