|
|
Writing & Academic Information
Upon satisfactory completion of the write-on requirement, you attain
membership status and may identify yourself as a "Journal of Corporation
Law Member" on your resume. Membership status carries with it the
obligation to attend authority checks, perform secondary hours as required,
and meet writing deadlines. If you fail to maintain membership status, you
should correct your resume immediately and notify previous interviewers of
the change.
As a prerequisite to graduation, each student is required to complete five
writing credits in their second and third years. Out of those five writing
credits, the students earn one from participation in AA1 and two of the
remaining four writing credits must come from a faculty supervised program
(e.g., classes or seminars). The journals are not considered
faculty-supervised programs for the purposes of the writing credits. A
student may receive no more than two writing credits from any of the College of Law journals. Each JCL writer will
receive two writing credits upon successful completion of a Note and the
secondary hours requirement.
Membership Requirements
Journal members must complete
thirty-five secondary hours each semester. Secondary hours can be completed
by taking on Journal-related
projects, typically assigned by the production staff, and by attendance at
authority checks.
- Secondary Hours
Projects
"Secondary hours" represent time spent working for the Journal, including Authority
Checks (A/Cs) and related tasks. The purposes of the secondary hours requirement are threefold. First, writers gain
a greater understanding of the editorial process that, in turn,
strengthens writing skills. Consequently, we urge writers to begin
completing secondary hours early in each semester. Second, the projects
provide writers with opportunities to interact with Journal editors. Interaction with Journal editors provides the staff with an informed basis
for evaluation in the staff selection process. Therefore, working on
projects with many different staff members will both enhance your
knowledge of the production process and increase the likelihood that you
will be selected to join the following year's editorial staff. Third,
publishing a quarterly journal would be nearly impossible without the
work writers do in completion of the secondary hours requirement. Without the student writers' help, producing the Journal and maintaining the high
quality our readers expect would be extraordinarily difficult.
The Journal
requires writers to complete thirty-five secondary hours each semester. Other
than A/Cs, which are mandatory for all writers,
writers are responsible for checking theJournal
bulletin board for secondary hours available to fulfill the hours
requirement. All writers are responsible for entering their secondary hours
on their secondary hour cards. The cards are kept in a file on the Associate Editors' desk. Secondary hour projects should be completed in a
timely manner with attention to detail. Writers should check with the staff
and the Writer's Manual for instructions on specific projects. Any staff member may
post a secondary hours project. Such projects
include: (1) Preemption Checks, (2) L2 Edits, (3) Entering A/C Changes, (4) Bookpulls, and (5) Cross-Referencing.
- Authority Checks
Once a writer's article (either an outside/faculty
author or a student piece) is selected for publication, the production
staff schedules an authority check (A/C). The purpose of the A/C is to
ensure that all authority used in an article has been cited accurately
and is in proper form. The integrity and reliability of The Journal of Corporation Law
depends on the accuracy of the published articles. Therefore, the work
done at an A/C is very important and must be completed in a thorough and
conscientious manner.
A/Cs take place in one
of the rooms in the Boyd
Law Building.
Prior to the A/C, a JCL member will divide a list of sources compiled by an
Articles Editor into appropriate categories (i.e., Federal case law, state
case law, statutes, journal and law review articles, etc.). Two to four
writers take the list of all the authorities cited in the article and pull
the sources from the shelves in the library. At the A/C, each second-year
writer receives a packet containing several pages with footnotes and
accompanying text. The writer must carefully check each source, citation,
word, and punctuation mark to ensure they are correct. A piece should leave
an A/C in perfect condition. Before leaving the A/C, each participant must
have his/her work checked by an editor before secondary hours will be
credited for attendance.
|
