Book Description
McKeachie's Teaching Tips provides helpful strategies for dealing with both the everyday problems of university teaching and those that arise in trying to maximize learning for every student. The strategies suggested in the text are adaptable to specific classroom situations. The book does not suggest a "set of recipes" to be followed mechanically; it gives instructors the tools they need to deal with the ever-changing dynamics of teaching and learning.
Customer Reviews:
Mostly buzz words and common sense.......2007-09-18
This book was only slightly helpful in my classes. The advice in this book sounds good to educators with its trendy terminology and emphasis on some amorphous "deep learning" but many students hate the collaborative exercises in this book and shut off to being taught in this manner. McKeachie is writing to other educators, none of whom understand how students in this generation actually think. Although most of the book was junk, there was the rare teaching strategy I found useful, but none of them were particularly ground-breaking or innovative.
Useful at various levels. .......2007-06-27
This book contains much information that is essential for a new college
instructor. For those of us who have been in the field, it also offers
an opportunity to reflect on class policies and teaching approaches through the lens of current thinking in cognitive psychology and practice in education.
Crucial Tips for the Enterprising and Advanced Instructor.......2007-06-21
There's a reason this book has gone through 12 editions over several decades, and that's because Wilbert McKeachie is the most widely respected expert on matters of college teaching. This latest edition is up to date with the latest theory and practice, and McKeachie has certainly not fallen into the pattern that is common with many multiple-edition books, in that he has avoided simply adding quick cosmetic updates. A look at the table of contents will tell you all you need to know about this expansiveness and inclusiveness of McKeachie's tips, and it's hard to imagine any area of the discipline that he hasn't covered. The only real issue with this book is that it is focused on teaching environments in which small class sizes or receptive administrators will allow for more personalized teaching strategies. However, not everyone will have that luxury, and other environments (especially large classes) are typically treated as mere exceptions and receive only cursory coverage. Another issue with the quality of this edition is some of the chapters that have only been edited by McKeachie but have been written by his colleagues, because these outside submissions damage the overall consistency of the book and the authors tend to focus on their own research and theories, as opposed to McKeachie's universal wisdom. [~doomsdayer520~]
This book gets better with each new edition.......2007-01-07
For the 12th edition of this book, McKeachie has added more valuable chapters that will benefit experienced as well as novice college instructors. Each chapter is fairly short -- often no more than 5 or 6 pages -- and edited to eliminate "fluff." Each quickly gets to the point and offers practical suggestions for such things as how to handle problem students in the classroom, how to create good test questions, and how to handle sticky issues that come up in grading. McKeachie has kept up with technology, too, and there is a new chapter on "teaching with technology" and an awareness throughout the book that today's students often prefer electronic media to face-to-face communication. The book is loosely structured and thus chapters can be read in any order. I especially recommend the series of chapters on testing and grading, as they provide great advice even for instructors who think they've heard everything. I use this book in my course on college teaching, along with Joe Lowman's book Mastering the Art of College Teaching and Robert Boice's Advice for New Faculty Members. This trio of books will serve you well, especially if you have never been formally trained in how to organize and run a college course.
New College and University Teacher's must have book.......2006-11-03
This book is an asset to new teachers. It is comprehensive, easy to read and understand and covers all areas that new teachers need to be a success in the classroom. I highly recommend it to all instructors not just new instructors.
Book Description
Doing a Literature Review offers students from across the social sciences and humanities a practical and comprehensive guide to writing a literature review. It takes the reader through the initial states of an undergraduate dissertation or postgraduate thesis.
Customer Reviews:
A good guide on how to analyze ideas and synthesize new ones.......2007-05-01
Hart's material will benefit anyone who needs to develop and demonstrate their expertise on a topic. He describes how the review contributes to the defense of a research topic and its findings, at the master's and doctoral levels. He presents examples of what thesis and dissertation boards look for in research proposals and papers.
The book describes techniques to extract clues about theories and methods a researcher used. Hart provides excellent guidance on how to analyze the literature on a topic, develop a map of ideas, and synthesize a new contribution.
Anyone who wants to develop their skills as a researcher, or student, should definitely purchase this book. I also shared many of this book's insights with my friends, who are not researchers.
Although I strongly recommend the book, I only rate it 3 stars. The book is unorganized, and the writing is poor.
In an example from Chapter 4, Hart presents a table of 19 common fallacies. The first column presents the type of fallacy (in no logical or methodical order). He titles the second column "What it is and how to avoid it" but only the first entry presents any "how to avoid it" data. The remaining 18 entries have no advice on avoidance.
I also felt some diagrams present no useful information; and his prose rambles and repeats itself. In short, Hart gives us dynamite information, but it is frustrating to sort through its sloppy presentation.
Too little for the price.......2007-02-08
Foudn the text minimally helpful. Not full of insight but just common sense.
Cost is too high for the return.
Great Resource for the Dissertation.......2005-08-09
I found this book to be a great resource as I am doing research for my dissertation. It has helped me to look at the lit review in a new light and has given me several ideas of others avenues to search.
so good my advisor is going to use it .......2005-07-18
This book is great. It has all you need to complete a research paper at any level. I used it for my bachelor's project which, according to my advisor, is equivalent to a Master's thesis in content requirement. My advisor has asked me to lend him the book so he can use it to revise the current research manual supplied by the college. This book is easy to read and has a lot of useful tables and charts.
Great resource!.......2005-07-09
Great, current resource for writing a lit review. Especially appreciated the specific information about how to analyze and synthesize information.
Average customer rating:
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Dry Bones Rattling: Community Building to Revitalize American Democracy (Princeton Studies in American Politics)
ASIN: 0803990936 |
Book Description
This is a genuine innovation, because it is the ONLY text available which demonstrates how social science theory/research can be APPLIED to successful collaborative work with community groups. "Sustainable Communities on an Aging Planet is a course I am designing for Fall, 1996. This text is exactly what I need for the course. I was very impressed with the case material." --Stan Ingman, University of North Texas "I will be teaching a new course next semester entitled 'Community Building.' I would love to have a text that emphasizes case studies, while providing some information on needs assessment and evaluation research. It looks like [this book] would be exactly what I need." --Roland Liebert, University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana Twenty-seven instructive cases, originally written for this volume, are framed by two introductory chapters and a concluding chapter, which draw out the principles and perspectives underlying the case materials. Each case also concludes with extensive editorial commentary.
Book Description
The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching
Ernest L. Boyer's Scholarship Reconsidered offers a new paradigm that recognizes the full range of scholarly activity by college and university faculty and questions the existence of a reward system that pushed faculty toward research and publication and away from teaching.
Customer Reviews:
Scholarship Reconsidered-A mandate for new scholars.......2006-03-23
This text offered insights for anyone, currently involved in, or considering the academic profession. The authors do a wonderful job in decribing the current expectations of academia at the period this text was constructed. Unfortunately, the book does paint the picture many would expect. It is unfortunate that higher education may have strayed from the teaching mission whether intentionally or indirectly but the authors offer alternatives as to how to approach the situation and that it may not be as polarized as it may appear.
It would be insightful to see this study updated to reflect the current situation.
SD-(Kentucky)
Easy, Effective Read.......2006-03-17
Boyer gives concrete advice for anyone that wishes to enter the world of academia or who is already in the academy that wants to refocus their efforts for maximum results. The book is easy to read and gives great food for thought.
a leader of educators.......2002-12-02
Dr.Boyer's Scholarship Reconsidered: Priorities of the Professoriate is one of the most famouse works about American education.Two years ago I read the book in China.By the way, I'm a Chinese graduate. And I think it is a usful book for those who are intersted in Ameican higer education.
An age-old problem without solution.......2001-08-26
I'd have given the book a higher rating if the author can come up with a clear and appropriate solution to the problem. Imbalance between teaching and research in higher education institutions is not a new issue. There is little doubt that almost everyone can feel the pain: from administrators and faculty to students and parents. The problem is crystal clear, but it persists because we don't know or don't have the will to fix it. Let's face the reality: Universities build their reputation around research grants and publications and Nobel Prizes. Parents fight to get their children into these high profile universities. Students who graduate from these universities have a better chance to land a good job. In the process the "reputation" of these universities is further intensified. It's a vicious cycle not the administrators or the faculty alone can break. No one will say no to good teaching. The real problem is that reward for good teaching is less tangible, effects of good teaching are less immediate. It may take years before students appreciate good teaching, some time long after they've moved on. It may take generations before the society feels the effects of good teaching. Education is a society's long term investment. In a modern age where we ask for immediate recognition and fame, we lack the will to pursue a distant but more satisfying goal. All these problems cannot and should not be tackled by the administrators & faculty alone, as the book seems to suggest. These problems call on all of us to search deep in our soul what it really takes to move the society forward.
A must read for all higher education faculty.......1999-04-29
Ernest Boyer has presented a very thoughtful conception of the changing demands placed upon those faculty who work in higher education. Recognizing the triad which governs the "tenurability" of faculty, Boyer addresses the need to rethink what higher education is about and how the "professoriate" needs to re-examine and re-prioritze what is important--teaching! He argues eloquently for making teaching the object of research and research a basis for what is taught. The book should be required reading for all faculty and administrators who work in higher education and constantly struggle with tenure and promotion criteria. He presents a very different perspective on what is important, not only to the professors, but more importantly to the students and ultimately to society. His straight forward style and clear message makes the reading of the book a pleasure and his message can serve as a catalyst for serious discussion about what is important activity for professors to engage in as "educators" of our future leaders, scientists, business persons, teachers, lawyers, doctors, and other members of society.
Book Description
College guides are a must for any teenager trying to choose the right school. Unfortunately, most guidebooks are vague, boring tomes written by administrators and journalists, instead of the real expertsÂ-the college students that actually go there. StudentsÂ' Guide to Colleges is different. Entirely student-written and edited, this invaluable resource cuts through the cant with comprehensive listings of the vital statistics and requirements for AmericaÂ's top 100 schools accompanied by three totally honest, fresh, fun-to-read descriptions penned by attending undergrads from different walks of life. Want to know how big classes really are? How rigorous the academics get? Or how greek or granola, chill or up-tight, homogenous or diverse, gay or straight, a campus really is? Lively, irreverent, and insightful, the StudentsÂ' Guide to Colleges is the only guidebook that offers multiple perspectives on each school and tells it like it is so that college applicants can make the best choice when deciding where they want to spend their college years.
Customer Reviews:
This is a great book.......2007-10-16
This book is so amazing (and I can justifiably say that because I am a prospective college student). This book includes 100 schools, and each school has 3 students that filled out a questionare about their college. This book is so great because it offers 3 different points of view, and not from people who are just telling you canned stuff about the college like admissions officers. It even has a question that asks what an admissions counselor might not mention on a tour. As a prospective college student, this gave me such a great view on the colleges I am looking at. The 3 reviews allows you to distinguish between those students that are exaggerating and those who are censoring. I recommend this book to anyone interested in the top schools- not just Ivy League (because believe me, I am not Ivy material and this book was still amazing) but any colleges. I read so much of this book, and I was able to throw out certain colleges and add other colleges to my list that had not been on my radar. Since I read all those reviews, I have a much better understanding of college life in general, and each college's student's life specifically.
I could rant and rave about this book forever, but I recommend you see for yourself. Look and make sure you are interested in at least one of the schools in the book, and, heck, you might be surprised to find a school you never would have thought of before--I know I did.
Great secondary source of information.......2007-08-16
If you are going to get more than one college guide, I highly recommend this volume. For each of the top 100 colleges, it contains three long essays by students who attend. You should get a great feel for what its like to attend these colleges. One of the coauthors, by the way, was a prospective student being tracked in "The Gatekeepers"--an insightful book abut the whole college admissions process.
Mixed!.......2007-03-13
My biggest problem is that most of the students were from the same state that the school is located it. Therefore, not very helpful for people out of state which we are. There was one section that was helpful--things that the administration probably wouldn't want you to know but overall disappointed.
Very helpful review for parents.......2007-02-07
I found a lot of information in this book, which is not found in some of the other college review books. Even though it is not realistic to get a complete picture about a college/university based on the opinion of 2-3 students, it is very informative to hear the students perspective. For some institutions the reviews were very uniform among the 3 students, and for some were completely contradictory.....but still quite useful!
Very helpful! The best!.......2007-01-29
This book is very helpful for getting the feel of a college, especially when said college is too far away for a visit. Each college is reviewed extensively by 3 different current students, who answer open-ended questions such as "What is the college's reputation? Is this accurate?" and "what would a prospective student not see on the college tour?" Reading the book feels much like chatting with the students in person. The size is more manageable than most guides (about 8 inches square by 1 inch deep) which means that one can carry it around in a bag and read it anywhere. I only wish that this book included more than 100 colleges; a few of the less-prestigious colleges I'm really interested in aren't included. All in all, just about the best college guide I've seen.
Book Description
This sweeping resource gathers together in one volume the diverse body of theory informing our understanding of students' intellectual, cognitive, social, moral, and identity development during the college years. It critically examines the recent body of theory that reflects the changes, complexity, and diversity of today's campuses with special emphasis on gender and cultural differences in student development.
Customer Reviews:
Not a text I'm selling back.......2007-08-01
This was a required text for a graduate class and I thought it was good enough to keep. It is a great introductory book that provides a good look at many of the different theories. It is true that it is not really deep, but that is what makes it a good introductory book. It goes just deep enough to help you understand.
A Good Introductory Textbook.......2007-02-01
This is a required text for my graduate class, but it does a good job of introducing student development theory
Very Pleased.......2005-10-07
Book arrived in record time...just in time for my class so I was very pleased. It was also in great shape and very well packaged. Thanks.
Theory Light.......2004-04-22
I applaud the authors' attempt to provide an accessible, easy to understand synthesis of student development theory, but they have sacrificed depth for breadth and left the reader with a text that, like over-processed food, provides some nutrition but ultimately fails to satisfy. The book is below the level of most master's degree students and practitioners in student affairs, though it might provide a useful introduction to theory for undergraduates or a useful reference book for administrators who don't have time to read original sources.
excellent overview.......2001-02-18
I also used this book in my graduate program. This book provides an excellent overview student development theory. It is an excellent introductory text. I had the added benefit of using this text in a course taught by one of the authors.
Book Description
With critical thinking exercises, practical applications, and personal advice, NAVIGATING THE RESEARCH UNIVERSITY provides first-year students with a comprehensive introduction to their education at a research institution. Suitable for freshman experience courses, orientation, or freshman seminars, it will be useful to students at a broad range of research universities and is flexible enough to help instructors incorporate particular aspects of their own institution. Britt Andreatta helps students understand what research is and the role that it plays in the institution, and introduces them to the methodologies used in a variety of disciplines. Andreatta also helps students to develop key skills for thinking, analysis, and writing, and offers them insight into the personal and working issues that may affect them as students or as members of a community of scholars.
Customer Reviews:
Read this book before you enter the classroom.......2002-09-06
This was one of the books I read in a "teaching college history" course I took at Indiana University. Prior to that I had taught two of my own courses and been an associate instructor for two more. I wish I had read this book prior to my teaching because it asks a lot of very good questions and gives suggestions that you can use in the classroom. The variety of courses that can be helped by such tips is endless -- even if you don't think your particular field could use a particular chapter or really has a particular issue I found reading it always helped me devise new strategies for teaching. This is not, however, a model of how to teach (could there ever be such a model?), you'll have to read and evaluate what may work for you for each particular class.
Teaching Tips Will Keep You Afloat.......2001-12-06
On my instructional maiden voyage into the sea of communication, this text was my life vest. In 28 concise chapters, Wilbert McKeachie offers pearls of wisdom on everything from drafting a syllabus to dealing with excuses, and everything in between. His straightforward writing lends itself to quick reading and makes it a handy "flip-to" guide for refreshers.
Whether you're wrestling with a "discussion dominator" or trying to finesse responses from silent students, this book offers proactive approaches and solutions to unforeseen challenges.
Keeping things fresh and interesting for students and yourself makes the learning experience more enjoyable. Reading, attending workshops and talking to experienced faculty are some of the suggestions the author offers. As someone who used to teach natural resource seminars, I was pleased that he acknowledged the energizing power of an effective workshop. In addition, the text also offers tips on applying new changes learned in those courses to classes.
As any instructor worth their salt is aware, teaching is an ever-evolving process, that must be honed and refined to suit both instructor and student. For anyone adrift in some arena of college instruction, grabbing onto this 379 page text will prove a worthwhile undertaking.
A must for those serious about teaching at the college level.......2001-09-30
This text provides college faculty with strategies to become a better instructor and to deal with the challenges of the profession.
Creating objectives, test design, learner goals, lecture formats, teaching to a diverse audience, grading, handling suspected cheaters - you name it and it is in there.
I believe it will be beneficial to any college instructor regardless of size of school. I teach at a small school and the text, though maybe slanted a bit toward the experience at the large research university, was tremendously helpful to me.
The book is easy to read. I have incorporated a lot of the strategies into this fall semester.
Still The Best.......2000-02-13
This is a book on teaching that can be read straight through with useful information on all areas of teaching. This is a book that can also be used as a reference source. Having read many books on teaching, this is still the best.
The best handbook I have found for university teachers........1998-11-04
I appreciate that the new views of learning are accounted for and applied by the author(s) of this book. I like the new chapters about using new technology in teaching and about helping students to learn and how to plan for students' independent study. The hints in every chapter about books and articles for further study are very helpful. It is easy to understand why this book is one of the most popular handbooks about university teaching not only in the US but also in Europe. Many copies of the earler editions have been sold in Finland and Sweden. It is very useful also for teachers in vocational education and training. Every new college teacher should have this book. However, many experienced teachers will also get a lot of ideas from it.
When a book like this appears in ten editions it must be a proof that many professors and university teachers have found it useful. And ... this tenth edition is still better than the earlier versions. To me it is the handbook # 1 for university teaching. No wonder that professor McKeachie has been called "Mr Improving University Teaching"
Rainer Nyberg, EdD. Professor of Education, Abo Akademi University, Finland
Book Description
Tracing the transformation of early modern academics into modern researchers from the Renaissance to Romanticism, Academic Charisma and the Origins of the Research University uses the history of the university and reframes the "Protestant Ethic" to reconsider the conditions of knowledge production in the modern world.
William Clark argues that the research university—which originated in German Protestant lands and spread globally in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries—developed in response to market forces and bureaucracy, producing a new kind of academic whose goal was to establish originality and achieve fame through publication. With an astonishing wealth of research, Academic Charisma and the Origins of the Research University investigates the origins and evolving fixtures of academic life: the lecture catalogue, the library catalog, the grading system, the conduct of oral and written exams, the roles of conversation and the writing of research papers in seminars, the writing and oral defense of the doctoral dissertation, the ethos of "lecturing with applause" and "publish or perish," and the role of reviews and rumor. This is a grand, ambitious book that should be required reading for every academic.
Customer Reviews:
An impressive Foucaultian work on the university -- and an often enjoyable read!.......2007-06-19
At the end of the book, Clark tells us that in 1989 he (then a newly minted PhD in history) received the following comment from one of his former teachers, who had just read the original "Urtext" from which this book grew: "It is too bad I did not have time to combat in you your pernicious Foucaultian reading of Weber's rationalization theories!" This is funny (the book often is -- I found myself laughing out loud several times -- no doubt because some of the analyses struck a little close to home!). It's funny in part because it makes his old teacher look a bit like a hopeless fuddy-duddy (the kind of historian who approves of Weber but not Foucault -- a real generational divide!). But it's also revealing: Clark's book really does read as a Foucaultian micrology of the university, one which teases a "grand metanarrative" about its historical development out of a series of analyses of mundane material items like lists, charts, drawings, etc. found in the archives.
Clarks's grand narrative -- the eclipse of the oral by the written in the Academy -- sounds more Derridean than Foucaultian actually, but the real point of the book seem to be to show how productive an exercise in Foucaultian method can be, to show how much can be learned from a series of painstaking analyses of miscellaneous material from the archives. These analyses are often extremely entertaining and interesting. (I did find some for me uninteresting stretches, but they never lasted too long, and the book rewards the reader's patience by eventually getting good again -- indeed, it keeps you reading for nearly 500 pages... no mean feat these days!) Still, there's something funny about them (I imagine future historians trying to deduce the nature of our culture by studying such things as collections of plastic Denny's placemats preserved in some archive...), but one cannot help but be dazzled by the depth and breadth of the research this book displays.
The irony here, of course, is that Clark's book clearly participates in the triumph of research whose history it deconstructively reconstructs. Clark recognizes this, and tells us (again showing his good humor) that he was surprised by his former teacher's reaction, since he himself thought his book would be read as "a long-winded diatribe on the ultimate identity of narcissism and nihilism." I think few readers will take it that way, but the book does open up that abyss. Here one cannot help but recall what Clark says about the early dissertations he researched in his own dissertation:
"Most of the erudite dissertations in appendix 4 do not add up to anything beyond themselves. They are specimens of erudition. They resemble displays and exhibitions. ...One cultivated the classical or illuminated the obscure. In either case, the point was display, virtuosity the key."
Clark goes on to show, however, that the early dissertations which were erudite displays of useless knowledge soon evolved into the more familiar, cumulative genre in which dissertations became overlapping pieces of a larger puzzle, thereby contributing to the birth of modern scholarship. Clark's own book is impressive not only for the mountains of research it digests and presents, but also because it is sure to encourage all manner of future research into the fascinating topic of the history of the institutions that continue to shape so many of us. While undeniabley dazzling, Clark's book strikes me as a useful (rather than useless) display of erudition. I cannot predict how the book will be received, other than well, but I suspect that Clark -- instead of (or at least in addition to) being seen as a narcissistic nihilist -- will soon find himself teaching at an elite research university!
I might just add that the book, as a work by a historian intended primarily for historians, does not seem to have realized how widely it would be read, and so does not systematically present much of the historical background against which its various analyses unfold, instead assuming its readers will already possess that historical background. Still, the narrative is rich enough that one can absorb most of the historical background by induction.
Superb.......2007-04-09
Fascinating beyond measure, and a work that should be read by anyone who has experience in academia, this book details the history, attitudes, and influences behind the modern research university. The latter has been subjected to harsh criticism of late, and some of this is justified, so this book will be helpful in assessing the validity of this criticism, in addition to providing information to the purely curious reader. The author interjects humor into the text, and sometimes a great deal of cynicism, but as a whole the book should sit on the shelf of every academician, both professor and administrator. Those who contemplate entering the academy will also benefit from its perusal, although it might scare off a few who expect the university to be populated by seekers of truth and wisdom. At times in the book the author it seems has an axe to grind, but his intentions are irrelevant in this regard. All that matters is whether or not he has provided evidence for his views. The huge collection of references at the end of the book reveals that he has done his homework, and those who disagree with his words will thus have to counter them with references of their own, a project that would of course be extremely time-consuming, but worth the effort.
For those (such as this reviewer) who are not familiar with the history behind the research university, but who crave to understand why it functions the way that it does, will find many surprises in this book and many questions answered. What are the origins for example of the doctoral dissertation, the oral exam, and the seminar? When did faculty salaries become an issue for the university? What is the origin of the endowed chair? Why are some professors held in such high esteem when their credentials are really weak in comparison to others? When was the first doctorate given? The answers to these questions will be surprising for the reader who has viewed the university as a citadel of truth that is completely divorced from historical context.
It is a little odd to view a professor as possessing "charisma", a word that the title of this book contains. When one calls an individual charismatic it is usually a person such as a military or political leader, who is able, through rhetoric or some other equally nefarious technique of power mongering, to convince others to rally behind his causes. But the charisma of a professor or a holder of an academic chair is tied to a spirit of uncritical adulation, generated by fame and a certain display of "originality" in their writings, the author argues, and he traces the art of charisma acquisition to the German Protestant Lands of the eighteenth century. It survived the rationalization of the Enlightenment and the Romanticist countermovement to bring about the system that we have today: one of "fame through publication" instead of the oral tradition of centuries ago.
The author sounds disappointed, and rightfully so, that this doctrine of charisma was spared, referring to history as being "cunning" in allowing it to survive. But unfortunately the academy is stuck with it, along with anonymous refereeing that encourages verbal sadism, a "publish or perish" mentality that favors lesser problems over ones of fundamental significance, and unbridled sycophancy to faculty who chair institutes and rule adroitly if not robotically. If anything this book will begin a dialog that will grow to such an extent that it will counter the "self-evident" truths that are axiomatized by the members of the current academic elite. It shows at bare minimum that institutions are the result of history and cultural evolution, and their expressions are not carved in stone. It will be interesting to see how rapid the research institution will change. It is currently facing a population of researchers who reach each other through the free exchange that technology provides them. The research journal may become a thing of the past, replaced with rapid communications enabled by the Internet and very inexpensive publication. Will the charisma of the research professor survive this (cunning?) technological and historical whirlwind? Maybe, but most probably not.
Book Description
The authors, who have a total of 50 years' experience in teaching law school, compiled this book of practical advice for their son, a law student. The book discusses in simple terms what law students need to know about law school and how to get the most out the law school experience. The text also discusses the problems law students encounter most frequently and solutions to those problems. Topics covered include briefing a case, precedent and how to use it, balancing competing interests and factors, legal writing, and psychological tips for the study of law.
Customer Reviews:
law school without fear.......2007-08-13
I read the book because it was due for orientation, but it had some very useful things in it. I would recommend it to anyone entering law school.
NOT worth the money.......2003-08-10
I was asked to read this relatively expensive book before my one-week intro to law class. I am not impressed. It seems very dry and very basic and mostly tells you what you will learn in the first year. Well, I plan to finish my first year so I suppose I will learn everything they want me to know. I have no fear of law school, so maybe I'm biased. There are also several pages dedicated to grammar. Useful enough, but hardly information that is going to allow me to attack law school without fear. Oh, and if you don't have a BASIC understanding of the purpose of the US Constitution (as included in this book, along with advice like being prepared for class), maybe you should reconsider attending law school. Please, please, please, go to a library and look at this book. If you feel you still need it at that point, buy a used copy. It won't be heavily used.
Further, their "examples" are just notable cases with different names that you will encounter in law school. That may be beneficial, but it seems pointless to hide a real case under pseudonyms. We actually have to learn these things at some point.
I don't regret reading it, and I suppose that it true with any book I read. Nobody knows everything and I sure don't claim to.
I'll get to my point and say that there are so many better books on the market. Look at the recommendation section above to find some. Of course, I may be wrong! : ) Happy reading.
A little dull.......2003-01-16
There is interesting and valuable information in this book, but the presentation -- the writing -- is about as dull as you can find. I would recommend it as supplemental material, but not your first read prior to law school. I can recommend "Acing You First Year Of Law School" by S.C. Noyes & H.S. Noyes. It touches on the same material, but the writing is leaner and far more approachable.
Informative overview of the legal system and the law.......2000-02-18
This book was recommended in a class I took which had both law students and non-law graduate students like public health students. I found it a very readable introduction to both the legal system and the basics of law. Topics include the concept of jurisdiction, different levels of appeal, rulings vs. dicta, different types of law (legislative, administrative, common law, etc.) While the book is targeted at people about to start law school, it may be surprisingly interesting for the general reader as well. Even sections on how to summarize cases and write essays on law, might carry over to other kinds of professional writing as well.
A thoughtful road map that hits and misses........1998-07-08
Law School Without Fear has its heart in the right place and fine sections regarding briefs, exam strategies, and psychological traps a typical first year law student will face. However, they bog down a great portion of the book with policy issues that give a forum for the authors personal beliefs. A clunky writing style doesn't win the book any stars, but the practical pointers make the book worth reading.
Books:
- Mechanics of Materials (with CD-ROM and InfoTrac)
- Men's Health: The Book of Muscle--The World's Most Authoritative Guide to Building Your Body
- Mind Hacks: Tips & Tricks for Using Your Brain (Hacks)
- Nutritional Biochemistry of the Vitamins
- One Man's Wilderness: An Alaskan Odyssey
- Our Final Hour: A Scientist's Warning: How Terror, Error, and Environmental Disaster Threaten Humankind's Future In This Century--On Earth and Beyond
- Physics of Semiconductor Devices
- Principles of Data Mining (Adaptive Computation and Machine Learning)
- Quantum Physics and Theology: An Unexpected Kinship
- Race, Class, and Gender: An Anthology
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- Innocent Traitor: A Novel of Lady Jane Grey
- History: Fiction or Science
- Hens Dancing: A Novel
- Dry: A Memoir
- Essential Daredevil, Vol. 2
- Functional Analysis
- Dead Madonna
- The Making of King James II: The Formative Years of a Fallen King.
- Grundy's Tax havens: A world survey
- Tennessee Patriot: The Naval Career of Vice Admiral William P. Lawrence, U.s. Navy
What the Best College Teachers Do
Creating Significant Learning Experiences: An Integrated Approach to Designing College Courses (JOSSEY-BASS HIGHER & ADULT EDUCATION SERIES)
The Joy of Teaching: A Practical Guide for New College Instructors (H. Eugene and Lillian Youngs Lehman)
Classroom Assessment Techniques: A Handbook for College Teachers (Jossey Bass Higher and Adult Education Series)
Tools For Teaching (Jossey Bass Higher and Adult Education Series)
