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Researching and Writing Your Upper Level Paper: Home

Based on the LibGuides "Developing a Topic" from Creighton School of Law and "Researching Your Seminar Paper" from Boston University Law School.

Things to Remember

Many scholarly research sources are published in print, whether as a book or collection of articles. These sources are not available electronically. It is vital to your research to investigate all relevant sources, including print materials.

Research Help

For personalized assistance researching your chosen topic, make an appointment with a reference librarian. 

Paul McLaughlin
(407) 254-3262
paul.mclaughlin@famu.edu

Sharron Cunningham
(407) 254-
sharron.cunningham@famu.edu

Lorelle Anderson
(407) 254-3288
lorelle.anderson@famu.edu

Researching Your Upper Level Paper

The process of researching and writing an upper level paper includes the following steps:

  1. Selecting a topic and conducting a preemption check
  2. Finding books on the topic
  3. Finding legal and non-legal journal articles on the topic
  4. Finding news articles on the topic
  5. Consulting specialized sources on the topic
  6. Finding primary law on the topic

While you are used to searching for cases and statutes to write legal documents, scholarly papers rely much more on previous scholarship. You will be focusing your research on news sources, journal articles, and books, whether legal or from other disciplines. Don't discount the value of interdisciplinary research, as many seminars focus on the intersection of law and other disciplines.

Writing a Legal Article

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