RESEARCH PROJECT TOPIC SUGGESTIONS

(Research Project in Language and Linguistics)

For the Law and Language (English-I) Project B.A., LL.B. 1ST YEAR National Law University, Delhi
SCHEDULE: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Submission of the synopsis Submission of the first draft Discussions on first draft to end Submission of the final draft Presentations to begin : By 4 P.M. on 31 August 2011 : By 4 P.M. on 30 September 2011 : By 4 P.M. on 17 October 2011 : By 4 P.M. on 08 November 2011 : On 08 November 2011

(Name, Roll Number, Date, Project Title and Number, Why, What, How-Typed On One Side of an A4 Sheet + Soft Copy)

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PROJECT SUGGESTIONS FOR LAW AND LANGUAGE

Collect newspaper articles carrying legal maxims or terms. Please elaborate these maxims and terms. Attach the newspaper article along with a proper reference. Collect and Study the legal documents/formats prepared by 'legal shops' for various purposes. What are the shortfalls of the language? Is it comprehensible to the layperson? Is it easy to understand? Make your recommendations about the language. Note any special features of the language that you may come across in law books, statutes, and legal writings. Point out the deficiencies if any and the scope for improvement. Collect courtroom scenes [scenes concerning law] from movies, comment on the mannerisms, Language and etiquettes. Interview some judges, or other legal professionals who articulate their opinion about language of the law, i.e. about the use of' Plain English' Collect references from the literature, what conclusions can you draw about the depiction of the Legal process in literature. Collect samples of gender-biased language from journalistic and legal writings. Conclude about their prevalence and effects. Suggest remedies. Study characteristics of 'short text messages' and conclude whether some regularities characteristic to the sender can be identified. Study characteristics of 'e mails' and conclude whether some regularities characteristic to the sender can be identified. Collect samples from journalistic and legal writings, conclude about the factors that make Legal Language difficult? Suggest improvements if any.

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Antigone, Benefit of Doubt, Merchant of Venice: Analyse the concept of law Collect samples from journalistic and legal writings (or samples of students writing/ Advocates writing / Judgements), conclude about the prevalence and effect of presence/absence/mistakes in the following and suggest improvements if any. a) Articles b) Prepositions c) Pronouns d) Adjectives e) Adverbs f) Collective nouns g) Uncountable nouns h) Past tenses i) Verb forms j) The subjunctive form k) Phrasal verbs l) Negatives m) Sentence structure n) Relative pronouns Collect samples from journalistic and legal writings (or samples of students writing/ Advocates writing / Judgements), conclude about the prevalence and effect of presence/absence/mistakes in the following and suggest improvements if any. a) Punctuation for legal writing b) Full stop c) Comma d) Colon e) Parenthesis f) Square brackets g) Dashes h) Hyphen i) Apostrophe j) Quotation marks k) Question mark l) Exclamation mark m) Capital letters Collect samples from journalistic and legal writings (or samples of students writing/ Advocates writing / Judgements), conclude about the prevalence and effect of presence/absence/mistakes in the following and suggest improvements if any. a) Basic standards of legal writing-Ch 4 b) Dates c) Numbers d) Citations e) Terminology and linguistic peculiarities f) Doublets and triplets g) Here-, there- and where- words h) -soever words i) Hence, whence, thence j) -er, -or and ee names

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k) Unfamiliar pronouns l) Ordinary words in unusual contexts m) Deeming n) Abbreviations o) Business buzzwords Collect samples from journalistic and legal writings (or samples of students writing/ Advocates writing / Judgements), conclude about the prevalence and effect of presence/absence/mistakes in light of the following chapters and suggest improvements if any. a) Elements of good styleCh. 5 b) General considerations c) What to avoidCh. 6 Collect samples from journalistic and legal writings, (or samples of students writing/ Advocates writing / Judgements), conclude about the prevalence and effect of presence/absence/mistakes in British and American English and suggest improvements if any. Collect samples from journalistic and legal writings, (or samples of students writing/ Advocates writing / Judgements), conclude about the prevalence and effect of presence/absence/mistakes in the Easily confused words and suggest improvements if any. Collect samples from journalistic and legal writings, (or samples of students writing/ Advocates writing / Judgements), conclude about the prevalence and effect of presence/absence/mistakes in the Phrasal verbs used in legal English and suggest improvements if any. Collect samples from journalistic and legal writings, (or samples of students writing/ Advocates writing / Judgements), conclude about the prevalence and effect of presence/absence/mistakes in the Foreign terms used in law and suggest improvements if any. Collect samples from journalistic and legal writings, conclude about the prevalence and effect of presence/absence/mistakes in the Legal terminology and suggest improvements if any. Collect samples from journalistic and legal writings, (or samples of students writing/ Advocates writing / Judgements), conclude about the prevalence and effect of presence/absence/mistakes in the following and suggest improvements if any. a. Obscure words used in business contracts b. Obscure phrases used in business contracts Discuss the Legality of Book-Banning. Collect instances and comment upon the practice in India/around the world. Collect and analyze defence speeches from the literature, e.g. Pro Archia The Benefit of Doubt-script writing Collect instances of Indian lawyers in the news. e.g. Case Correction: Indian lawyers pick syntax errors for US firms, make a killing. Analyze and comment. Collect some poems, and analyze the concept of law Analyze the difference between plain English and legal language of the first plain English legislation of the U.k. Command of language in the profession of Law Forensic linguistic analysis of SMS texts Forensic linguistics and analysis of e mails

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Use of forensic linguistics in social networking sites Analyze judgements for literary elements.