Book excerpt: Mastering Legal Analysis and Communication is designed to help novices navigate the often difficult task of learning new ways of thinking and communicating. Law schools employ methodologies and pedagogical paradigms that law students find mystifying and hard to comprehend. This book aims to explain how these methodologies and paradigms function, why they are used, and what they are meant to accomplish. The topics covered range from the basic concepts of understanding what law is and what "thinking like a lawyer" means, to making sense out of the structural paradigms of legal writing and rhetoric. Mastering Legal Analysis and Communication will serve as a useful guide for students as they undertake their studies in both their casebook and practical skills courses. In fact, the themes discussed and explanations offered will help students better see that the analytical and communication skills utilized in all their classes fall upon the same continuum of professional competence. As such, this book is a vital reference work for students as they try to make sense of their law school studies in a more comprehensive and connected way. Mastering Legal Analysis and Communication is designed to help novices navigate the often difficult task of learning new ways of thinking and communicating. Law schools employ methodologies and pedagogical paradigms that law students find mystifying and hard to comprehend. This book aims to explain how these methodologies and paradigms function, why they are used, and what they are meant to accomplish. The topics covered range from the basic concepts of understanding what law is and what "thinking like a lawyer" means, to making sense out of the structural paradigms of legal writing and rhetoric. Mastering Legal Analysis and Communication will serve as a useful guide for students as they undertake their studies in both their casebook and practical skills courses. In fact, the themes discussed and explanations offered will help students better see that the analytical and communication skills utilized in all their classes fall upon the same continuum of professional competence. As such, this book is a vital reference work for students as they try to make sense of their law school studies in a more comprehensive and connected way.