ITT: We Crowdsource Textbook Design Forum

[bracton]

This thread has loads of great stuff but as far as I can tell, it's missing the key point:

KEEP THE BOOK LIGHT.

Too many casebooks (I'm looking at you in particular, Brest on Con Law) aren't so much designed to teach as to give the student a hernia. A book should be thin. Three or four pages is all you need for a well-edited case. If the student is good, they'll go on Westlaw and find the whole case for themselves and read it anyway. If they're not interested, well, they're not going to be interested by a load more text in the book.

[LeDique]

This thread has loads of great stuff but as far as I can tell, it's missing the key point:

KEEP THE BOOK LIGHT.

Too many casebooks (I'm looking at you in particular, Brest on Con Law) aren't so much designed to teach as to give the student a hernia. A book should be thin. Three or four pages is all you need for a well-edited case. If the student is good, they'll go on Westlaw and find the whole case for themselves and read it anyway. If they're not interested, well, they're not going to be interested by a load more text in the book.

wat

[Bronte]

If we're talking formatting, one thing is margins. I took notes in the margins, and the publishers that skimped on the margins... infuriating. But that's probably out of the author's control.

[Flips88]

another shitty text: Marty Redish's CivPro. its just an opportunity for him to stroke himself by using the notes as an opportunity to quote at length his own "schoalry" articles. so dont do that.

Haven't taken him but I've heard this description about his actual classes lol

A suggestion: If something is important, put it in a preface to a case and not in the notes. Nobody wants to read the fucking notes.

[Bronte]

Nobody wants to read the fucking notes.

[Samara]

another shitty text: Marty Redish's CivPro. its just an opportunity for him to stroke himself by using the notes as an opportunity to quote at length his own "schoalry" articles. so dont do that.

Haven't taken him but I've heard this description about his actual classes lol

Con. Firmed.

[09042014]

another shitty text: Marty Redish's CivPro. its just an opportunity for him to stroke himself by using the notes as an opportunity to quote at length his own "schoalry" articles. so dont do that.

Haven't taken him but I've heard this description about his actual classes lol

Con. Firmed.

I didn't realize notice pleading plus wasn't a real thing until dat Themis learned me.

Also NR, I'm exploiting your peoples lands by harvesting walleye this week. You aren't around are you?

[LazinessPerSe]

The Hart textbook for Fed Courts is exceedingly bad. There is a danger to over-condensing too much and giving people one-line summaries of major cases. Also, fuck footnotes. A page should never have more than 3-4 lines of footnotes, if any at all.

[Bronte]

The Hart textbook for Fed Courts is exceedingly bad. There is a danger to over-condensing too much and giving people one-line summaries of major cases. Also, fuck footnotes. A page should never have more than 3-4 lines of footnotes, if any at all.

Yeah this book is painful. It's also one of the most important and influential textbooks, so that kinda tells you where the state of the art is.

[Samara]

another shitty text: Marty Redish's CivPro. its just an opportunity for him to stroke himself by using the notes as an opportunity to quote at length his own "schoalry" articles. so dont do that.

Haven't taken him but I've heard this description about his actual classes lol

Con. Firmed.

I didn't realize notice pleading plus wasn't a real thing until dat Themis learned me.

Also NR, I'm exploiting your peoples lands by harvesting walleye this week. You aren't around are you?

Does this mean the litigation matrix isn't on the bar either?!