Course Description
How verbal communication skills and strategies of persuasion are used in a variety of legal settings. Includes interviewing, courtroom speeches, witness examination, jury selection and deliberation, as well as issues of judicial argumentation and reasoning and effects of media on litigation outcomes.
Athena Title
Comm Strategies in Courtroom
Semester Course Offered
Offered spring
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
1. Gain a knowledge of the structure of the American Legal System and local system. 2. Understand the values written into the American legal system and thereby become a better citizen. 3. Understand the controversies, potential weaknesses, and quandaries of the system in relation to these values. 4. Gain perspective on the historical development of rhetoric in its relationship to forensic disputes. 5. Understand the uneasy relationship between contemporary media and the courtroom. 6. Learn various strategies for inventing courtroom-specific arguments in oral and written forms. 7. Learn ways of detecting logical fallacies and openings for counter-argument. 8. Gain a facility for using a variety of linguistic devices to color and frame arguments via oral and written assignments. 9. Learn techniques for drawing arguments into larger coherent narratives. 11. Gain intimate knowledge of the structure of a trial through mock exercises. 11. Hone delivery skills through in-class case presentation of opening and closing arguments. 12. Improve impromptu thinking skills through competitive cross-examination. 13. Learn group skills by working with others on a legal team.
Topical Outline
Structures and values of American and British legal systems Perennial ethical controversies regarding the functioning of the legal system Economic disparities and the legal system History of rhetoric and its relationship to the courtroom Relationship between the courtroom and mass media Construction and selection of arguments Selection of evidence Linguistic devices Delivery and decorum in the courtroom Constructing a narrative Constructing the victim Opening statement Witness examination – direct and cross Closing argument Time-tested tricks and techniques Perform mock trials
Syllabus