Any Tips on Ending Research?

From: Frank Houdek (houdek@siu.edu)
Date: Wed Aug 28 1996 - 08:21:27 PDT


The question below will be featured in the "Our Question--Your
Answers" column of the Winter 1997 issue of "Perspectives: Teaching Legal
Research & Writing" (to be published in January).

Please note that if you send me a response, it may well be included in the
compilation of answers that will appear in that issue. [Therefore, if you
don't want to see your name in print, do not answer. Or answer anonymously.
Or provide such a weird response that not even someone desperate for copy
would include it.]

So here's the question:

In law school, research exercises are often designed to lead to an answer.
In "real world" legal work, however, there may be no answer. New attorneys
and summer associates often have difficulty knowing when to stop in
situations where answers aren't clear--even when they have been thorough in
their research. What tips can you offer the inexperienced researcher for
determining when to end a research project?

Thanks for your help.
Frank Houdek, Editor, Perspectives: Teaching Legal Research & Writing

Frank G. Houdek
Law Library Director & Prof. of Law
Southern Illinois University School of Law
Carbondale, Illinois 62901-6803
(618)453-8788/////FAX (618) 453-8728
e-mail: houdek@siu.edu



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