Day 77 - Get Invited to Speak to a Class

Date: March 24th, 2010

I'm an expert at a lot of things.  I'm great at pontificating.  I have a PhD in imagination.  I could write a book on procrastination, ya know, in theory.  And, well, you may not know this about me, but I have six toes and I'm a world class liar (those last two things are, of course, meant to be read in tandem).  Sadly, none of those pursuits are the kind of thing that get you invited, well, anywhere.  Surely not to an institution of higher learning.

As it turns out though, this semester one of my professors is someone I had as an undergraduate at UofM.  I didn't know, at the time, that she taught at both the law school and the main college.  Here's the thing about Professor Jones.  She's awesome.  Now, I can say that without it being, ya know, kiss assery, because she has no idea what my blog address is.  That being said, despite an insanely friendly demeanor, she can be somewhat intimidating.  Mostly because she's very intelligent.

I had her as an undergrad in the second semester of my sophomore year, for a class called "Mapping Black Detroit".  It was an amazingly interesting seminar course where we looked at the racial population distribution of Detroit during the mid-1800's.  Oops.  My nerd is showing.  Ya know what, to heck with it, time to let the freak flag fly.  We got to do primary source research. A lot of which involved looking through old phone books (original copies) from that time.  Now, you might be saying: "Hey, idiot, they don't mention race in the phone book".  Well, idiot, they did in the 1800's in Detroit.  It was incredible to start with no idea what we were going to find out and be able to build a picture of the city over 100 years ago.

Now I have her for a class on Critical Race Theory.  I've you've never heard of it, you should look it up.  Its a movement of legal scholars to change the way the law treats issues of race and call attention to the continuing struggles that exist in this country with racism, sexism and homophobia (though, of course, since it is Critical Race Theory, it does focus mostly on race).  About a week ago, she sent me an e-mail asking if I would come talk to some of her students about the transition from undergraduate writing to legal writing.

Being both flattered and excited to share my war stories, I accepted the invite.  I was one of about 7-8 people she'd asked to participate.  The thing that surprised me the most about talking to her undergrad students was how nervous I was not to say anything wrong.  I was afraid I'd tell them something that sent them the wrong direction and not be able to fix it.  I think it was just an uncharacteristic bout with stage fright, quite honestly.  That and the understanding that I was brought in to talk to them as someone who knows what its like.

Despite the moderate concern about not being helpful, it was a great experience.  It was nice to feel like some of the trials by fire that were part of my (and most law students') 1L year actually brought about some good, in the form of advice to other people.  It was also clear after the class was over that our advice was helpful to the students.  Truth is, legal writing is a lot different than historical, scientific or any other form of writing.  Its tedious, with tightly defined structure and little to no personal touches or interesting flair.

Bob: Ooh, I called the "victim" the "accuser" in my memo.  You know, to get my point across.
Rob: Whoa there Bob.  Slow down.  That's dangerous talk.

I mean, really?  Y'all see how I write.  Take it on faith that memos were... an adjustment.  It was nice to have a chance to prepare other people for that adjustment.