Highly educated people focus intently on their specialty, yet they forget the average person has NO IDEA what the specialist is talking about. I'm not an advocate for dumbing down language, in fact I feel the exact opposite is needed to prevent the loss of knowledge in our global society. I do advocate for a common language or common channel for communicating that allows specialists to communicate with each other.

Considering the implications of a world without specialization, meaning a world without physicists, brain surgeons, electricians, veterinarians, etc, it is highly unlikely that you are not a specialist in something and that you will not encounter a specialist in your daily conversation. The study of law, to a certain extent, is the study of any number of acute topical specialties with a focus on persuading the "reasonable jury" in terms that a "reasonable person" can understand. The ability to communicate in, among, and between specialties has been the subject of many writings. It is with this thought in mind that I offer a list of books for your consideration:

1. Interdisciplinarity: The New Critical Idiom by Joe Moran. Routledge (2002). This book is a good place to start when attempting to consider why you care about communicating between specialties.

2. Lawyer Negotiation: Theory, Practice, and Law by Jay Folberg and Dwight Golann. Aspen (2006). The title does not do this book justice. Imagine exploring a dispute and the intricate relationship between juxtaposed parties and how the conversation stems from enlightened self-interests and manuevers its way through internalalized debates over value judgments and negotiation - not just with yourself...

3. Cognitive, social, and physiological determinants of emotional state. by Schacter and Singer. Psychological Review, 69, 379399(1962). The building blocks to understanding how or why people react differently to the same stimulus.

more to come soon.