A Needs Analysis of the Written Communication - What Say the Lawyers?

Abstract

A rule of the thumb is: you apply what you have learnt. However, many have failed to do so. This paper reports the lack of ability to apply the learnt knowledge into real-life context of the legislative communicative event of writing the important legal documents. Parameters of Munby’s Communication Needs Processor (CNP) were adapted and used to investigate the need to master the written communication in the legislative domain. The data was gathered from semi-structured interviews with selected specialist informants who are legal practitioners in legal firms. Thematic analysis was applied to the responses received. The findings highlighted crucial problems faced by legal practitioners when employing fresh graduates from law faculties of various higher learning institutions in the nation. The findings are deemed important and are used to justify the need of a research investigating the written legislative discourse.

DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n6s2p230