How to write essays for law students
So if you go to law school, you know that essay writing (and reading) is a fact of life and is something that you’ll have to do until you graduate (and probably afterwards in some of other format). The thing is, legal writing is very very different from writing a normal English essay, and getting the format correct is so important, as you will definitely be marked down if you decide to deviate from requirements of legal writing. Here is my process I go through to draft and complete a legal essay:
I read through the essay question and then try to identify the sources I want to use. First I find all of the relevant case law and legislation that I can use to argue my point and type them out. Then I do some internet research and see if I can find any reputable internet sources to back up my arguments. Try going for websites of other universities or legal institutions, including your government’s website. I also look for journal articles and loose leaf pdf publications online. Google Scholar will help you find these. JUST DON”T FOR THE LOVE OF GOD USE WIKIPEDIA (seriously, don’t) - you can always check out the sources listed at the bottom of the wikipedia article if you think the info on a wikipedia page may be helpful (and true…).
I don’t generally plan out my introduction or conclusion paragraphs, as these shouldn’t contain any new information or arguments, but I always plan out the body of my essay. I set out all of my statements under subheadings (each of which will form a new paragraph, and can continue for a few paragraphs). under the subheading I state in bullet points, all of the sources I will use to back my argument up, as well as the sub-arguments I can use to prove my point. This is so that I know exactly what my standpoint is and why and how I got to that argument.
this is so important as it looks a lot more professional than just having your name and student number placed at the top of the first page of where your actual writing starts. your cover page doesn’t have to be detailed, I add my name, student number, name of the assignment (e.g. “English semester essay”) and the date that the essay is due on the cover page. I make the font big and readable in Times New Roman font and the writing on the cover page is always centred.
I always add my footnotes as I go along (yes you do need footnotes for legal writing, there’s no way around this). As soon as I refer to a source in any paragraph in my essay, whether it’s a book, internet source, case law, legislation, or even lecture slides presented in class, I will add the footnote referencing the source. This must be done in the correct format, and your faculty should have guidelines as to how they want you to reference these footnotes, which will differ for each kind of source.
I also do my bibliography as I go, as I find it much more efficient than having to go through all my sources at the end and then start a long process of referencing. Your college/ university will have a specific method of referencing they would want you to use (e.g. Harvard, Cambridge, Oxford, or even their own method) and you should find this somewhere on your online academic portal. I separate my references by type using subtitles (e.g. internet sources, books, case law, legislation) and then I order the references within each subtitle section by alphabetical order according to the author’s surname (often this is an actual requirement for referencing and you may lose marks if you don’t do this). Your bibliography should always be on a separate page at the end of the document.
Most universities will require the you print out and sign a plagiarism declaration, as plagiarising is a form of intellectual property theft, and if you commit this theft you could be expelled, and if the university accepts work that is plagiarised, they institution could be held liable and if the author you’ve plagiarised from finds out, they can institute a civil claim against the university for a lot of money. Most universities have a specific plagiarism declaration they want you to use, and if you don’t include this (signed, with the date and your name) in your work your lecturers will likely not even mark your assignment. Include the plagiarism declaration to avoid any unnecessary legal and disciplinary action.
Because law relies purely on language, it is so important to hand in work with the highest standard of language, diction and grammar. First do the obvious: spell and grammar check. Your lecturers will be reading through hundreds of essays and have no time to try figure out what you are writing down if you misspell something and will probably mark you down. Also read through your essay to see if you have repeated any specific words too many times, and try find some synonyms to replace them with to avoid sounding like a truck record. If you repeat the same word all the time, it makes it seem like you have a limited vocabulary and are not cut out for legal writing. Lastly, justify your text, make sure it’s in a neat font (Arial or Times New Roman), in a reasonable font size (11 or 12) and make sure that your titles and subheadings stand out from the rest of your writing (by making them bold, underlined or bigger in font size)
I hope this helps all my future lawyers and paralegals out there xxx
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