Write-On Support Group Forum

[Leeroy Jenkins]

The fuck is the Redbook?

The style manual.

[mikeytwoshoes]

The fuck is the Redbook?

The style manual.

[eth3n]

really? we are forced to use a school specific goldbook 8(

[BobSacamano]

Uh oh... I sort of enjoy Bluebooking. At least more than writing my comment. I didn't want to be one of those freaks.

In other news, after getting my first grade for this semester my motivation for finishing the write-on content has decreased a little more. Of course, there's no way to know for SURE by the time the competition is over if I'll have graded on, so neurotic Bob will continue to slave away/procrastinate on his paper.

[martin55]

as a former law review member who has graded write-on submissions before, a word of advice: if you make your case note or comment look and sound like something that would be published in a law journal (i.e. substantially footnoted with proper bluebook format, proper tone, etc.), you will make it a long way past others who are unable to. each reader was allotted 10 submissions to grade, i knew within a page or two whether or not i'd recommend an offer of membership (regardless of whatever scoring rubric there was). i recommended membership for 2 out of the 10 i graded, and those were the only 2 out of the 10 that got on, so other graders were likely thinking the same thing too.

[Leeroy Jenkins]

as a former law review member who has graded write-on submissions before, a word of advice: if you make your case note or comment look and sound like something that would be published in a law journal (i.e. substantially footnoted with proper bluebook format, proper tone, etc.), you will make it a long way past others who are unable to. each reader was allotted 10 submissions to grade, i knew within a page or two whether or not i'd recommend an offer of membership (regardless of whatever scoring rubric there was). i recommended membership for 2 out of the 10 i graded, and those were the only 2 out of the 10 that got on, so other graders were likely thinking the same thing too.

What specifically was distinguishing?

[hithere]

Agh..so nervous, just hope I get on a journal. Hopefully the other people in my class blew the competiton off...

[mikeytwoshoes]

So angry...must wait until I postmark to vilify idiosyncrasies of write-on...if I actually get on law review I will make sure it doesn't look like this next year... >_<"

Passive-aggressivity is bad for your heart. Vilify now!

How about just one, just one...

90% of the absurd bluebooking examples are directly from the bluebook's examples (i.e. they are the listed examples in the bluebook). This is evil for two reasons. If you are doing this legitimately basically you just have to keep flipping pages in the international jx section because they always omit the country code or any words that are actually in the origin language, they just leave random acronyms (e.g. K.P.W. [s2] RF; somehow this is is chinese thing? OK I SEE THAT!!). EVEN MORE EVIL is that they leave out one crucial piece of information, but its clearly there in the example, so the question I ask is "I am supposed to say <country of origin> or bolivia because the example is the EXACT SAME REPORTER AND UNLESS THE BLUEBOOK MADE AN ERROR IT WOULD BE IMPOSSIBLE FOR IT TO BE ANYTHING ELSE, BUTTTT NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! WE ARE SUPPOSED TO TRUST THE BLUEBOOK RULES AND IGNORE THE BLUEBOOK EXAMPLES? WTF IS THIS? "Use your best judgment" USE MY BEST JUDGMENT? I wasted hours putting @ symbols next to this issue (which came up about 30 times) and writing a preface explaning how no matter what the correct way to deal with this is (follow rule and ignore example like your braindead vs. fill in the info from example because ITS THE EXACT SAME REPORTER AND PINCITE SO IT MUST BE THE SAME THING) there is no reason to tell us to "USE OUR BEST JUDGMENT"

If you think this bad, check this shit. The packet I'm working on includes two statutes. The problem: only one of them has Title Code Section information. I'm pulling my hair out.

[revolution724]

I'm here, I'm reading cases, I'm profoundly ambivalent about the wisdom even of participating in this process, no matter how strongly urged to do so. 12-point Courier font, 1-inch margins, no justification, two spaces after the periods.

[ToTransferOrNot]

I'm here, I'm reading cases, I'm profoundly ambivalent about the wisdom even of participating in this process, no matter how strongly urged to do so. 12-point Courier font, 1-inch margins, no justification, two spaces after the periods.

Godfuckingdamnit. The two-periods-after-spaces rule developed around TYPEWRITERS. It is completely worthless now. Why do people not put it out of its misery.

[revolution724]

I'm here, I'm reading cases, I'm profoundly ambivalent about the wisdom even of participating in this process, no matter how strongly urged to do so. 12-point Courier font, 1-inch margins, no justification, two spaces after the periods.

Godfuckingdamnit. The two-periods-after-spaces rule developed around TYPEWRITERS. It is completely worthless now. Why do people not put it out of its misery.

Don't ask me, them's the rules. I blame the same psychological phenomena as underlie New York's weird, incestuous, irrational love affair with the common law.

[mikeytwoshoes]

I'm here, I'm reading cases, I'm profoundly ambivalent about the wisdom even of participating in this process, no matter how strongly urged to do so. 12-point Courier font, 1-inch margins, no justification, two spaces after the periods.

Godfuckingdamnit. The two-periods-after-spaces rule developed around TYPEWRITERS. It is completely worthless now. Why do people not put it out of its misery.

[mikeytwoshoes]

I'm here, I'm reading cases, I'm profoundly ambivalent about the wisdom even of participating in this process, no matter how strongly urged to do so. 12-point Courier font, 1-inch margins, no justification, two spaces after the periods.

Godfuckingdamnit. The two-periods-after-spaces rule developed around TYPEWRITERS. It is completely worthless now. Why do people not put it out of its misery.

Don't ask me, them's the rules. I blame the same psychological phenomena as underlie New York's weird, incestuous, irrational love affair with the common law.

As I understand it, the point is to see if you can follow directions. The need to do so seems to be drawn from the old grade-on scenario. You can be sure that someone with a 4.3 can follow directions. With write-on, you can't always be sure.

[IzziesGal]

Tomorrow at 8pm is my deadline. And then it's OVER!!! I have about two days worth of journal work after that, and then 1L is officially behind me. I start work next week, so my only real break comes in the beginning of August before classes start. Right before OCIP. (Imagine how relaxed I'll be)....

I am seriously running on empty. Oh, and I quit coffee this semester. Really bad time to start worrying about my health, if you ask me.

[revolution724]

I'm here, I'm reading cases, I'm profoundly ambivalent about the wisdom even of participating in this process, no matter how strongly urged to do so. 12-point Courier font, 1-inch margins, no justification, two spaces after the periods.

Godfuckingdamnit. The two-periods-after-spaces rule developed around TYPEWRITERS. It is completely worthless now. Why do people not put it out of its misery.

Don't ask me, them's the rules. I blame the same psychological phenomena as underlie New York's weird, incestuous, irrational love affair with the common law.

As I understand it, the point is to see if you can follow directions. The need to do so seems to be drawn from the old grade-on scenario. You can be sure that someone with a 4.3 can follow directions. With write-on, you can't always be sure.

This argument doesn't work on me. I used to work in academia, where people generally don't get unless they've had high GPAs at some point in their lives, and Ph.D.s and law professors cannot (or will not) follow directions.

[revolution724]

Tomorrow at 8pm is my deadline. And then it's OVER!!! I have about two days worth of journal work after that, and then 1L is officially behind me. I start work next week, so my only real break comes in the beginning of August before classes start. Right before OCIP. (Imagine how relaxed I'll be)....

I am seriously running on empty. Oh, and I quit coffee this semester. Really bad time to start worrying about my health, if you ask me.

Yeah, I don't... I worry about my health a lot, but then I think of it like how they tell people not to quit smoking while they're going through chemotherapy. Deal with this horribly difficult ordeal that might nearly kill you first, then the unpleasant correction of less-than-ideal habits when you're under less pressure, I think is the theory.

[mollie]

Do you get penalized if you don't reach the page limit? I turned mine in, but I was a little under the page limit. I hope that doesn't automatically ding me.

[mikeytwoshoes]

Do you get penalized if you don't reach the page limit? I turned mine in, but I was a little under the page limit. I hope that doesn't automatically ding me.

You're boned.

[sophie316]

This thread makes me feel guilty about my decision to not even bother w the writing comp....

[revolution724]

This thread makes me feel guilty about my decision to not even bother w the writing comp....

I'm seriously starting to think there's a significant number of people who don't, and yet go on to lead perfectly productive lives. I think my chances of actually making a journal are negligible, so I'm very unconvinced that this is worth it.

[Danteshek]

This thread makes me feel guilty about my decision to not even bother w the writing comp....

I'm seriously starting to think there's a significant number of people who don't, and yet go on to lead perfectly productive lives. I think my chances of actually making a journal are negligible, so I'm very unconvinced that this is worth it.

At my school there are plenty of people in the top 20% who do not participate. I don't understand why. This is good for me because Law Review requires a good faith effort in the write-on. So if you are in the top 10% and don't do the write on (or do a crappy job), Law Review will not extend an offer. The fewer people in the top of the class participate, the more write-on candidates from the top 30% make it.

[Other25BeforeYou]

This thread makes me feel guilty about my decision to not even bother w the writing comp....

Funny, this thread makes me feel really glad I chose not to partake.

This thread makes me feel guilty about my decision to not even bother w the writing comp....

I'm seriously starting to think there's a significant number of people who don't, and yet go on to lead perfectly productive lives. I think my chances of actually making a journal are negligible, so I'm very unconvinced that this is worth it.

At my school there are plenty of people in the top 20% who do not participate. I don't understand why. This is good for me because Law Review requires a good faith effort in the write-on. So if you are in the top 10% and don't do the write on (or do a crappy job), Law Review will not extend an offer. The fewer people in the top of the class participate, the more write-on candidates from the top 30% make it.

Presumably because they don't want to be on a journal. Seems reasonable to me (obviously).

[Danteshek]

Yes, but it doesn't make sense to me. If they are in the top of their class at a Tier 3, they are shooting themselves in the foot by passing on Law Review.

[mikeytwoshoes]

This thread makes me feel guilty about my decision to not even bother w the writing comp....

I'm seriously starting to think there's a significant number of people who don't, and yet go on to lead perfectly productive lives. I think my chances of actually making a journal are negligible, so I'm very unconvinced that this is worth it.

I don't think that anyone ever said you couldn't lead a productive life without being on law review. It's about putting yourself in the best position to succeed.

0Ls have the T14 or bust mentality, which makes me wonder why no one has a law review or bust mentality with regards to the journal competitions.

[mikeytwoshoes]

Yes, but it doesn't make sense to me. If they are in the top of their class at a Tier 3, they are shooting themselves in the foot by passing on Law Review.

You did not specify that you are at a tier 3 school in your earlier post.