Academic Legal Writing, 5th Ed. by 
Guide to Legal Research and Writing from the Transnational Perspective by
Heather Meeker, Stalking the Golden Topic: A Guide to Locating and Selecting Topics for Legal Research Papers, 1996 Utah L. Rev. 917 (1996). Gives practical advice on how to identify a strong topic for academic legal writing and describes a preemption check process.
Ruthann Robson, Law Students as Legal Scholars: An Essay/Review of Scholarly Writing for Law Students and Academic Legal Writing, 7 N.Y. City L. Rev. 195 (2004). Critiques the Volokh and Fajans/Falk texts and offers independent commentary on topic selection and the scholarly writing process.
