Exercise 2-5C: Genre Analysis in Legal Writing

Download the most recent set of North Carolina Appellate Court opinions and choose one to analyze with your group. (Content warning: some of these opinions may deal with potentially troubling issues.)

With your group, follow the directions involved in surveying the opinion, using highlighting to identify the different sections of the report. Then, focus on the main opinion, using a different set of highlight colors to identify the statement of facts, issue, holding, and reasoning. 

Finally, restate the main opinion in your own words and be prepared to share your summary with the class.