Those horrible law school outlines, Part 2.

I've complained before about the class outlines that law students pass on to other students and about the intolerable presence of these outlines on my law school's own website. I want students to engage with the assigned readings during class discussion, not pick a phrase out of some former student's outline. I don't go out of my way to notice such things, but sometimes it's rather obvious, for example, when a student confidently states an answer that would be a plausible answer to a question I plan to ask a half hour later, or when a student gives what might work as a good answer but then has no idea what language in the assigned text supports that answer. But if there is one thing in all of the four courses I teach that most reveals that a student is relying on a former student's outline, it is something that would come up in today's Civil Procedure II class (on the procedure that applies in federal court diversity cases). The dead giveaway is a request for a "flow chart." If--who am I kidding? when--someone asks for a flow chart, it will take some effort not to shriek, "Why are you relying on someone else's crappy outline!"