Title of your article

Yourname Goeshere*

Abstract

Replace this text with your abstract. Asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf.

Asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf.

Table of Contents

Introduction [ctrl-alt-1]	1

I. First-Level Heading [ctrl-alt-1]	3

A. Second-Level Heading [ctrl-alt-2]	3

1.	Third-level heading [ctrl-alt-3]	3

Conclusion	4

Introduction [ctrl-alt-1]

What you are reading right now was written by Professor Eric E. Johnson (ericejohnson.com). I am providing this template for my students. Obviously, it is okay for people who aren’t my students to use it. But my intent here is to address my own students …

Start writing your paper using this template and save it as a DOCX file.

Use this template. This template has the right format. It looks like a law review article, which is what we want. So don’t mess with the margins, spacing, fonts, etc. It’s not a typography or graphic design class. Could this template be improved? Probably. If you have ideas about that, let me know. But don’t mess with this file.

PLEASE DO NOT MESS WITH THE STYLES IN THIS DOCUMENT. That means don’t redefine or “modify” the styles. If there’s an issue with the styles, let’s talk about it in class.

Make backups! First, I strongly suggest you keep saving the evolving manuscript as new versions. That gives you a trail of what your paper looked like as it evolved, and it allows you to go back to an earlier version if you start down a path that turns out unhelpful. Also, saving as a new version is one way of giving yourself backups if a file gets deleted. But you also need to back up to a different computer, to a flash drive, to a portable hard drive, to the cloud, or to some combination of those. You can also keep e-mailing yourself versions of the manuscript as it evolves. As long as you can get into your e-mail account, you’ll have a backup.

I made this template by taking a template provided by Professor Eugene Volokh through his website, and then modifying it. Professor Volokh included a warranty disclaimer in his template, so I will retain that, albeit slightly reworded:

No warranty is made with regard to this template/file, including but not limited to the warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, beauty, consistency, or cleanliness.

Professor Volokh also warned that Word is “notoriously glitchy.” True that. Learning to wrangle Word is a necessary skills for generating first-rate legal scholarship. Or even second-rate legal scholarship. That’s just the way it is. But if you start off using this template to create your document right at the beginning, and if you keep working with it going forward, you’ll be much better off than if you started from scratch.

In the headers in this document, Volokh put in the brackets that give you a keyboard shortcut (combination of keys to press) to use to apply the relevant style. That may or may not work on your machine. But it doesn’t matter. You can apply the styles using the menus in your Word program. Or, even easier, you can just copy and paste text that has the right style and just go from there.

The table of contents up above works automatically. It’s actually pretty nifty. If you cut and paste text including first- or second-level headers, that will end up captured in the table of contents when the table of contents is updated. To get it to update, try right-clicking anywhere in the table of contents and selecting “Update Field.”

Obviously you’re going to delete this instructional text and all the dummy text in this template and replace it with your own. In particular, remember to get into the headers (both the odd-page header and the even-page header) to replace the dummy text with text appropriate for you and your paper.

I. First-Level Heading [ctrl-alt-1]

Normal text [ctrl-alt-0].

Block quote [ctrl-alt-shift-Q].

Normal text. Asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf.

Asdf asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf asdf.

Asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf asdf.

Asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf.

Second-Level Heading [ctrl-alt-2]

Normal text.

Asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf.

Asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf.

Asdf asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf.

Third-level heading [ctrl-alt-3]

Normal text here, asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf asdf.

Block quote [ctrl-alt-shift-Q].

Normal text. Asdf asdf asdf.

Fourth-level heading [ctrl-alt-4]

Normal text. Asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf.

Asdf asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf asdf.

Fifth-level heading [ctrl-alt-5]

Normal text. Asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf.

Conclusion

Normal text. Asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf.

Asdf asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf asdf. Asdf asdf asdf.

* Author’s note.

Footnote text [ctrl-alt-F, though it should come up this automatically].

Block quote in footnotes [ctrl-alt-shift-R].