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Call to publish scientific articles that will be received between June 20 and November 20, 2019, referring to:

University Pedagogy: With topics such as public policies in higher education, legislative system and reforms, academic programs, comparative policies, massification processes, quality assurance, legal professions, and others in higher education as a general field, referring to the Chilean and international context .

Didactics of Law: With topics whose centrality is related to processes of innovation, learning, curriculum, innovations, teaching experiences, students and teachers characterization , among others in legal education in the Chilean and international context.

Ethical and citation standards (Chicago-deusto) must be taken care of, in addition to the originality of the research or innovation.

An instrument to assess plain writing in the legal field

Authors

Abstract

Our objective is to propose an instrument that allows assessing the clarity of the writing of legal texts. Based on the interdisciplinary work, we develop research based on a multi-method approach and with an intraparadigmatic orientation. For the instrument creation, we used three complementary inputs: in-depth interviews with lawyers-
teachers, surveys of lawyers and a documentary review, in addition to our knowledge
on the subject. The central result of the research is a descriptive assessment scale that allows plain writing to be assessed in the legal field. This instrument was validated in
different instances and by specialists from different areas. In conclusion, we offer a useful evaluation resource that meets the rigorous criteria of the design of instruments to evaluate performance, such as, in this case, the production of clear writings in the legal field.

Author Biographies

Paulina Meza, Universidad de La Serena de Chile

Paulina Meza holds the title of Professor of Spanish and the degree of Bachelor of Education from the University of Playa Ancha (2006). She obtained the degrees of Master in Applied Linguistics (2009) and PhD in Linguistics (2014) at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso. In her postdoctoral research, she addressed the study of the genre Research article, considering the variables of expertise and the author's area of science. Her research interests are mainly related to academic, professional and scientific discourse, and argumentation. Her work has been published in various national and international magazines. She has carried out research stays and academic visits at different universities in Latin America and Europe. She has directed two competitive projects (FONDECYT- ANID) focused on the specialized discourse of Law and Medicine, and on clear language in the legal field. Currently, she works as an academic at the Institute for Multidisciplinary Research in Science and Technology at the University of La Serena (Chile).

Felipe González-Catalán, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso

Felipe González-Catalán is a professor at the School of Law of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso (Chile). He obtained a Master's degree in Education with a mention in Learning Assessment from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (2013) and is currently a PhD candidate in Education and Society from the University of Barcelona. Research interests are in line with university teaching, literacy and academic writing, didactics and evaluation of higher education teaching. He has participated in various research projects in the area of academic writing and evaluation. His email is felipe.gonzalez.c@pucv.cl.
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1153-1723.

Israel González Marino, Universidad Central de Chile

Israel Alonso González Marino is a lawyer and has a degree in Legal Sciences from the Universidad Católica del Norte (Coquimbo, Chile). In addition, he has a Master's degree in Curriculum Development and Educational Projects from the Andrés Bello University, and also a Master's degree in Animal Law and Society from the Autonomous University of Barcelona. He currently works as an academic at the Central University of Chile, Coquimbo Region. His email is israel.gonzalez@ucentral.cl. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8769-4425.

Max Turull Rubinat, Universidad de Barcelona

Max Turull Rubinat (Cervera, 1960). Professor of History of Law and Institutions at the Faculty of Law of the University of Barcelona (UB) and teaching collaborator at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC). He has more than 30 years of teaching experience at the UB and more than 15 in e-learning. He has collaborated closely with research groups and projects on the History of Law and also, in parallel, with the CSIC (Institución Milà y Fontanals) in lines of research on medieval finance and taxation. Since 2006, he has specialized in teaching improvement and innovation (MQD-ID), academic performance and academic planning, areas in which he has participated in international conferences, has published articles and has obtained several funded research projects (MQD, REDICE, PMID, HERE). He has been Secretary of the Faculty of Law (2004-2008), institutional manager of the teaching quality improvement program at the same center (2004-2016), member of the Senate and the Governing Council of the University of Barcelona (2008-2014 ), Vice Dean of Academic Organization of the Faculty of Law of the UB (2008-2016), responsible for teacher training (ICE) at the Faculty, member of the Board of Directors of ICE and of the Quality Agency of the UB. Your email
mturull@ub.edu. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7341-0823.