LogosLogos is all about logic, or arguing in a such a way that the reader things, "Okay, yeah, I can see that makes sense." The Homestead Act doesn’t have much of an emotional appeal—it's prett...

Legal DocumentYou want crazy narrative structure? Check out some Virginia Woolf. You want straightforward, dry-as-kindling legal doctrine? Hey: you're in the right place. This act is mega-important...

Dry, HypotheticalA legal text can’t, for the sake of tradition, be anywhere close to exciting. It has to set out terms and conditions for a bunch of if-this-then-that situations regarding the act...

LegaleseOkay, we all know the Homestead Act is a legal document setting out rights, rules, and restrictions about homesteading in the West. There’s no getting around the fact that legal documents...

The shortened, most widely known title is completely self-explanatory. The Homestead Act involves the legalities and process of homesteading. (Homesteading: the act of building a home in the wilder...

Now, this being a legal text, the opening line is actually all of Section 1. Each section, through the crazy, legalese-y use of semicolons, colons, and commas, is a single sentence…and usually wi...

If we’re being pedantic, which is no fun, the actual closing lines are the words "Approved, May 20, 1862." But that’s not what you’re looking for.Maybe something more like this:And be it furt...

(5) Tree LineThe Homestead Act is a legal document, which means it’s written in legalese…quite possibly the least accessible dialect of English imaginable. (Not to mention it’s in Ye Olde Leg...

In-Text ReferencesPolitical and Governmental ReferencesSenate of the United States (Section 1)House of Representatives of the United States (Section 1)United States (Section 1, Section 2)U.S. Army...

Fun fact: what we tend to refer to as the Homestead Act actually includes a bunch of laws opening and regulating the acquisition of government land way out West. So, what did you just spend time re...