Monthly Archives: January 2012

Abbreviations & acronyms – the bane of my life

Posted in Resources by

Now before you start getting jealous, I am not writing this on the beach. The picture (Away From Keyboard, in case you’re wondering) is just to try to combat January blues.

Today I have a wonderful discovery to share with you – the Cardiff Index to Legal Abbreviations.

Abbreviations are one of things that really irritate me. Just made to exclude others who are not “in the know”. Unfortunately, we have to use, understand, and, for some of us, translate these nasty little tikes. And OK, I will admit, sometimes, they can save quite a bit of time writing out long titles. Continue reading →

Coffee break training

Posted in Resources, Training by

OK, so maybe your daily coffee doesn’t look like the coffee in the picture, but we can all dream, can’t we?

Today’s post is about a great idea from the UK – to provide software training in tiny bite-sized chunks. Their slogan is “IT training, one cup at a time”.

Coffee Break Training have a YouTube channel where they kindly offer some free video tutorials on Microsoft Office products. In their instructor-led sessions delivered by webinar, you can choose half-hour slots when it suits you, and the prices are very reasonable indeed (I have no vested interest in this!).

Finding out about you

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On Monday I added a little poll to the left sidebar of the blog – to find out more about my readership. I will publish the results in a couple of weeks when people have had time to vote.

I’d also like to know what sort of posts you want to see. You can tell me either by email (the form is at the bottom of the sidebar if you scroll down), or by adding a comment to this post.

Do vote in the poll and write in with your suggestions – I really would like to hear from you!

Monday smiles – light bulbs and arks

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As my readers may have guessed by now, I do think that a sprinkling of fun is important in life. Today I have two little texts for you – one lampoons lawyers (my apologies in advance, but hopefully you have a good sense of humo(u)r), and the other bureaucracy and nanny States (no apologies there…!)

So, first “How many lawyers does it take to change a light bulb?”

And second, “Noah’s Ark Today” (the subject of which is definitely not specific to Canada!)

The texts were posted on an award-winning blog with the unexpected name “Law is Cool“, which addresses “issues related to law school and the legal field with a Canadian focus”.

Have a good week!

Multilingual semantic map on steroids

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A few weeks ago, I told you about a dictionary on steroids (see here). Today’s post is about a multilingual semantic map and thesaurus on steroids! It’s called the Sketch Engine. At present it can be used in 42 languages.

The Sketch Engine is an awesome tool. It is extremely useful for everyone who manipulates words and needs ideas.

Here are just a few examples of how it can be used:
– To create brand names: The Most Powerful Naming Tool I’ve Ever Used
– To help translators looking for collocations (the words that ‘sound right’ together)
– To give inspiration to lawyers when wording their pleadings
– To help academics when writing papers or theses
– To help journalists and authors get around ‘writer’s block’
– For non-native speakers of a language to check which words are used together and how

Continue reading →

Legal Language Explorer

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The Google N-grams tool (see my recent post and update) has now fostered a new application to search 200 years of US Supreme Court decisions: Legal Language Explorer. It has been developed by Professor Dr. Daniel Martin Katz of Michigan State University College of Law, Michael J. Bommarito II of Computational Legal Studies, and their colleagues.

The tool is lightning fast, and I really like the way that the corpus tool allows you to click through to list of cases and then to see the original text, and to export lists to Excel, for example. I also support the move, of which the authors are part, to make more full-text legal resources openly available to the public.

Click here to see a presentation of the service, given at the conference JURIX 2011 in mid-December. Bommarito has also posted a more technical description of the project on his blog.

You can try out the web-based interface here. Let me know what you think!

Thanks to Rob L. indirectly via Australia, and Robert at Legal Informatics Blog for bringing the project to my attention.

A selection of useful iPad apps

Posted in Articles, Resources by

The rise of iPad adoption by legal professionals (see this article and this survey) is largely because it is so light and easy to carry around. The tablet can also be a useful way for translators to store and access a wide selection of documentary resources, including (heavy!) dictionaries offline wherever they are. In the academic world, uptake seems more limited for the moment, but there is a wealth of tools that researchers could take advantage of, as you will see below.

Hopefully this post will give you a few new ideas. I have included only those apps that I find really useful, but of course there are many more, including in other languages. Do share your favourites with us by adding a comment below this post or sending me an email. Continue reading →

World’s first Twitter moot

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On Tuesday, February 21st, 2012, at 10am PST (1 pm EST), the non-profit organization West Coast Environmental Law in Canada will be hosting the world’s first ever Moot Court to be held on the popular social media platform, Twitter.

Three judges and teams from five law schools across Canada will make social media and legal history, participating in a mock appeal of a recent precedent-setting environmental case, with the teams and judges all participating via Twitter. (Thanks to Library Boy for bringing this event to my attention).

Click here to go to the moot website

How you can participate…

Continue reading →