Contributor's Guide

Welcome to the Note Contributor's Guide!

A Digest Note proffers a novel analysis on an issue related to law and technology. It contributes something new and interesting to the field. While a Note may include economic, cultural, or other types of arguments, it must revolve around the law.

You should make sure that your Note idea is not preempted; do some background research and work with your Note Editor on refining the idea.

Your Tasks

1. Come up with a novel analysis related to law and technology.

2. Provide an outline.

3. Write a 1500-2000 word analysis piece on the topic.

4. Respond to suggestions from the Note Editor.

Requirements

Novelty

Your Note should put forth your analysis of a particular area of law and technology. While you should write about a novel idea, you need not canvas all of current literature in making sure your idea was not preempted. Your idea will be fine to write about if an on-point piece does not show in the first page of a google search or first five links of a search on secondary materials on Westlaw or LexisNexis.

Possible topics include

• Inconsistencies within a recent opinion

• Inconsistencies within a line of opinions

• The dissenting opinion got it right

• The majority opinion got it right but for a different reason

• Unforeseen consequences of a recent case

• Critiques of a law review article

• And so on...

Length

Your Note should be within 1500-2000 words. You may go over 2000 words, but only if both you and your Note Editor agree that your thesis requries the extra space. Every Note will have an objective portion, that sets up the context of your piece, and a subjective portion, that lays out your argument. There is no required distribution of words between the two portions — the only requirement is that there is a subjective portion.

Citations will not count towards the word limit.

Citations

Notes are more formal pieces than Digest Reports. And so, you will need to provide pincites for every statement you attribute to someone else. Follow the Bluebook whitepages subject to the rules laid out in the Notes Style and Citation Guide. When submitting drafts, provide citations in endnotes rather than footnotes.

Logistics

You will be working closely with your Note Editor throughout the process leading to publishing. Submit drafts to your Editor via email. Follow the guidelines below when formatting your email.

Email Subject

Please use the following template for your subject lines

[JOLT Digest] contributor_name Note draft_version Example: [JOLT Digest] Fishwick Note Outline Example: [JOLT Digest] Fishwick Note First Draft Example: [JOLT Digest] Fishwick Note Second Draft

Document Naming

Please submit drafts as either .doc or .docx files. Label drafts in the following manner:

contributor_name draft_version date_emailed Example: Fishwick First Draft 2017-06-30.doc

Writing Process in a Nutshell

The process can be broken down into the following steps.

1. Outline/Rough Draft

2. First Draft

3. Second Draft

4. Submission

Outline/Rough Draft

This is an opportunity for the Note Editor to provide feedback on the Note in the early stages of writing it, so that you can tailor, structure, and address issues. The outline/draft should be more than the proposal, and should reflect some research, but it needn’t be a complete article. The Note Editor should be available in case you have questions or would like help with the direction of the Note.

There may be multiple back-and-forths with the Note Editor on the outline. This is ok: you want to minimize the number of major substantive edits once you start writing.

First Draft

Your Tasks

1. Submit your completed draft over email.

2. Note Editor will spend one week editing.

3. Note Editor will return your track-changed draft with comments via email.

Send your completed first draft to

• Your Note Editor

• Submissions Editor (cc)

• [e-mail] (cc)

The Note Editor should spend up to one week reviewing the Note. The Editor will do the following.

• provide local substantive suggestions in the margins (through comments)

• provide general substantive suggestions at the end of the piece

• correct grammatical errors in-text (through track-change feature in Microsoft Word) or through the comment feature

• verify citations

After these changes are made, the Note Editor will email the edited document to you and CC both [Submissions Editor email] and [e-mail]. Try to meet with the Note Editor in person or over the phone to discuss the Note and the changes he or she made.

If at any point the Note Editor has a question or concern regarding the Note or needs someone to review part of the Note, he or she should feel free to email the Submissions Editor at [Submissions Editor email].

In between the first and second drafts, feel free to reach out to the Note Editor for any substantive or grammatical questions. The editing process for the second draft should adhere to the same guidelines as the editing process for the first draft. By the time the second draft is formally submitted, the Note should be organized and coherent. Most if not all sources should be found.

Second Draft

Your Tasks

1. Evaluate your Note Editor's feedback and make changes accordingly.

2. Submit your revised draft over email.

3. Be available to field editing requests from your Note Editor.

Send your completed second draft to

• Your Note Editor

• Submissions Editor (cc)

• [e-mail] (cc)

The next step after your Note Editor receives your second draft depends on what changes to the Note are needed.

If all the necessary changes are grammatical and there are only very minor substantive changes, the Note Editor will direct you to make those changes.

If the Note requires substantial change, the Note Editor should email [Submissions Editor email] and [e-mail] a copy of the Note and a description of these proposed major changes. The Digest Masthead will look at the Note and determine whether these major changes can be made in time for publication or if publication of the Note’s publication needs to be delayed. You should be working closely with the Note Editor throughout the editing process so that substantive changes will not be necessary at this point.

Submission

After both you and your Note Editor agree on the final draft, the Note Editor will email this finalized draft to

• You, the Contributor

• Submissions Editor

• [e-mail]

You will be notified when your Note is published. Be sure to look it over for any mistakes.