Welcome to Good Sentences, a resource designed by the University of Michigan Law Library to help you find and eventually produce pieces of writing that are clear, compelling, and actually enjoyable to read.
The materials used to create the popular course Good with Words: Writing and Editing are now available for free online. There is also a print version and a Kindle version.
For more, see the Good Sentences Books page.
Feedback Loops: How to Give and Receive Better Feedback
Thursday, November 18, 2021 at 1:00 pm EST | Zoom
Join professor Patrick barry in a special Zoom session of the "Feedback Loops" course he teaches at the University of Michigan Law School. You'll learn about written feedback. you'll learn about spoken feedback. And with any luck, you'll come away with a better understanding of how to achieve the right mix of encouragement and evaluation the next time somebody asks you for your input.
Friday, March 19, 2021: Trivia Night!
7 p.m. on Zoom
Do you have what it takes to be the trivia master? Trivia night organizaed by Michigan BLSA and hosted by Alice Choo from MLaw Admissions. *Note: Join 10 mins early to ensure you get a team.
Monday, March 8, 2021
Good with Words: Teams & Talent
Noon - 1 pm on Zoom
Join Professor Patrick Barry for an interactive workshop that comes with the added bonus of giving you a peek into an actual University of Michigan Law School classroom. Students in Professor Barry's "Self-Advocacy and Institutional Change" course will be right there with you learning, debating, and sharing their own tips on collaboration and composition."
September 24, 2020: Draw Your Professor!
7-8 p.m.
Come one, come BLSA! Join the University of Michigan Law School faculty and students this Thursday for a figure drawing lesson led by Richard Phillips, a former client of the Michigan Innocence Clinic. Professor Dave Moran, the Clinic's director, will pose as our muse! September 24, 2020; 7-8 pm
November 8, 2019: Faculty Briefs- People v. Jurewicz
4 - 4:30 pm, Jeffries Hall 0225
Come hear Professor Imran Syed of the Innocence Clinic talk about the leave for appeal he and his students
recently filed in People vs. Jurewicz, a case they are hoping to have heard by the Michigan Supreme Court.
September 18, 2019
Good with Words: Innocence: Then and Now, 11:50 am - 12:50 pm Jeffries Hall 0225
Join Professor Dave Moran and students in the Innocence Clinic for a workshop on storytelling in Professor Patrick Barry’s “Founding Phrases” class. The backdrop will be a discussion of John Adams’ powerful defense of the British soldiers charged with murder in the Boston Massacre back in 1770.
April 12, 2019: Faculty Briefs: Bryan Adamson
4–4:30 p.m. Jeffries Hall 0225
Visiting Professor Bryan Adamson will discuss a motion for preliminary injunction he helped students draft in a predatory lending case.
April 5, 2019
Good with Words: Crafting Contracts, 4 - 4:30 pm, Jeffries Hall 1225
Join Kelly Pfeifer of the Community and Economic Development Clinic and Fermin Miguel Mendez of the Entrepreneurship Clinic as they share tips on drafting and editing contracts during a special session of Professor Patrick Barry’s Good with Words class.
November 14, 2018
Alumni Briefs: Trujillo Diaz v. Sessions, Noon - 12:30 pm, South Hall 0220
Get a short lesson on writing from Professor Patrick Barry and then hear former Equal Justice Works Fellow Katie Kersh (‘13) of Advocates for Basic Legal Equality talk about her winning brief in Trujillo Diaz v. Sessions, a Sixth Circuit case that helped protect her client from being wrongly deported.
Friday, November 9, 2018: Good With Words
3:35–4:35 p.m. South Hall 1020
Judge Andrew Gordon of the District of Nevada will make a special guest appearance in Professor Patrick Barry’s “Good with Words” class. Come hear Judge Gordon’s speaking tips on everything from oral argument, to interviewing, to giving and receiving feedback.
October 31, 2018
Edit Hour: Better Blogs, Noon - 12:30 pm, South Hall 1020.
Blogging has become a bigger and bigger part of both academic and professional life. Learn how to do it a bit better from Professor Patrick Barry and a team of editors from the Michigan Journal of International Law.
September 26, 2018 Edit Hour: 1L Revised
Noon–12:30 p.m. South Hall 1020
Join Professor Patrick Barry as he talks with a panel of peer tutors about what they would revise given the chance to edit all the writing they did during their 1L year.
November 1, 2017: Edit Hour: Crafting Contracts
Noon - 1 pm, South Hall 0220
Contracts are a way to use words to manage risk and relationships. Learn to do that more effectively at this week's Edit Hour, where the guest will be Professor Dana Thompson, '99, of the Entrepreneurship Clinic.
[Important note: Good Sentences does not endorse any of the opinions contained in the sentences in the collection. The only thing we endorse is the elegantly effective way these sentences were constructed.]
