Memo Woes Forum

[adonai]

Fucking B+...after she raved about how excellently it was written.

You got me paranoid now. Prof. has been raving about my writing as well. Think it's the curve?

[AlexanderSupertramp]

Fucking B+...after she raved about how excellently it was written.

You got me paranoid now. Prof. has been raving about my writing as well. Think it's the curve?

No, they're not implementing the curve til the end of the semester. This draft had 100 possible points and I got 88 of them. I'm just falling back on the hope that everyone else did worse. She didn't even give enough feed back for me to fix the things I did lose a point on besides that I addressed it to the wrong person...ooops.

[ph14]

Fucking B+...after she raved about how excellently it was written.

You got me paranoid now. Prof. has been raving about my writing as well. Think it's the curve?

No, they're not implementing the curve til the end of the semester. This draft had 100 possible points and I got 88 of them. I'm just falling back on the hope that everyone else did worse. She didn't even give enough feed back for me to fix the things I did lose a point on besides that I addressed it to the wrong person...ooops.

88/100 is pretty solid. I wouldn't be surprised if you got curved up.

[Extension_Cord]

Yeah 88/100 is probably the top score. In got a 76/100 on my last memo and had the second highest grade (curve was 55/100, highest was 80/100). Depends on your professor though. Even in my own school, different professors have a wide range of medians.

[AlexanderSupertramp]

Thanks, guys. I need to pull off an A in this class because I can't see myself ending up with one in Contracts.

[ilovesf]

Fucking B+...after she raved about how excellently it was written.

this happened to me too on my first memo.. sorry

[ilovesf]

Fucking B+...after she raved about how excellently it was written.

You got me paranoid now. Prof. has been raving about my writing as well. Think it's the curve?

No, they're not implementing the curve til the end of the semester. This draft had 100 possible points and I got 88 of them. I'm just falling back on the hope that everyone else did worse. She didn't even give enough feed back for me to fix the things I did lose a point on besides that I addressed it to the wrong person...ooops.

i even also got an 88.. mine was the third highest grade (i think) in a class of 12. meh.

[ph14]

Fucking B+...after she raved about how excellently it was written.

this happened to me too on my first memo.. sorry

Yeah, i'm worried this is going to happen to me on my open memo.

[ph14]

Anyone know if there is a way in Microsoft Word to "stick" something together? I'm stating a rule and it runs at the end of the line and splits up the numbering. I want to stick it together either on the same line or on the next line. It's weird because it shows up on one line, but prints out on two.

IE: Blah Blah Blah 20(a)(1). But when it is printing, it's putting the 20(a) on one line and the (1) on the other.

[03121202698008]

Anyone know if there is a way in Microsoft Word to "stick" something together? I'm stating a rule and it runs at the end of the line and splits up the numbering. I want to stick it together either on the same line or on the next line. It's weird because it shows up on one line, but prints out on two.

IE: Blah Blah Blah 20(a)(1). But when it is printing, it's putting the 20(a) on one line and the (1) on the other.

Are you putting a space between it? (There shouldn't be one...) If you encounter this with a space...use a non-breaking space. http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word- ... 44897.aspx.

I've never seen it do this without a space. Maybe view formatting and see what's going on. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/901125. Otherwise, maybe try selecting don't hyphenate under paragraph settings or editing the sentence so it doesn't fall there.

[ph14]

Anyone know if there is a way in Microsoft Word to "stick" something together? I'm stating a rule and it runs at the end of the line and splits up the numbering. I want to stick it together either on the same line or on the next line. It's weird because it shows up on one line, but prints out on two.

IE: Blah Blah Blah 20(a)(1). But when it is printing, it's putting the 20(a) on one line and the (1) on the other.

Are you putting a space between it? (There shouldn't be one...) If you encounter this with a space...use a non-breaking space. http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word- ... 44897.aspx.

I've never seen it do this without a space. Maybe view formatting and see what's going on. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/901125. Otherwise, maybe try selecting don't hyphenate under paragraph settings or editing the sentence so it doesn't fall there.

Nope no space.

[03121202698008]

Anyone know if there is a way in Microsoft Word to "stick" something together? I'm stating a rule and it runs at the end of the line and splits up the numbering. I want to stick it together either on the same line or on the next line. It's weird because it shows up on one line, but prints out on two.

IE: Blah Blah Blah 20(a)(1). But when it is printing, it's putting the 20(a) on one line and the (1) on the other.

Are you putting a space between it? (There shouldn't be one...) If you encounter this with a space...use a non-breaking space. http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word- ... 44897.aspx.

I've never seen it do this without a space. Maybe view formatting and see what's going on. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/901125. Otherwise, maybe try selecting don't hyphenate under paragraph settings or editing the sentence so it doesn't fall there.

Nope no space.

I tried to replicate it but Word 2011 for Mac wouldn't do it. Looks like a bug. Try the don't hyphenate thing. Sometimes word is screwy and you just have to work around. If you work for the courts, many use Wordperfect and that's even more fun.

Edit: If all else fails, put a non-breaking space and superscript the space...it'll be about half a normal space and may fool your prof.

Edit2: Even better, put a non-breaking space, highlight the space, edit font, select hidden.

[ph14]

Anyone know if there is a way in Microsoft Word to "stick" something together? I'm stating a rule and it runs at the end of the line and splits up the numbering. I want to stick it together either on the same line or on the next line. It's weird because it shows up on one line, but prints out on two.

IE: Blah Blah Blah 20(a)(1). But when it is printing, it's putting the 20(a) on one line and the (1) on the other.

Are you putting a space between it? (There shouldn't be one...) If you encounter this with a space...use a non-breaking space. http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word- ... 44897.aspx.

I've never seen it do this without a space. Maybe view formatting and see what's going on. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/901125. Otherwise, maybe try selecting don't hyphenate under paragraph settings or editing the sentence so it doesn't fall there.

Nope no space.

I tried to replicate it but Word 2011 for Mac wouldn't do it. Looks like a bug. Try the don't hyphenate thing. Sometimes word is screwy and you just have to work around. If you work for the courts, many use Wordperfect and that's even more fun.

Edit: If all else fails, put a non-breaking space and superscript the space...it'll be about half a normal space and may fool your prof.

Edit: Even better, put a non-breaking space, highlight the space, edit font, select hidden.

Even stranger, when I printed it at home, it doesn't break up the 20(a)(1), with or without the "don't hyphenate option." When I printed it at school (without checking the don't hyphenate box), it did. So it looks like I will have to play around with it at school tomorrow.

[03121202698008]

Even stranger, when I printed it at home, it doesn't break up the 20(a)(1), with or without the "don't hyphenate option." When I printed it at school (without checking the don't hyphenate box), it did. So it looks like I will have to play around with it at school tomorrow.

Sounds like the printer driver...the printer will format things it thinks are out of bounds. Sometimes printing to a PDF first can help.

[FeelTheHeat]

Realizing how shitty my first memo was. On the plus side, maybe I get extra points for improving it a ton.

[northwood]

Realizing how shitty my first memo was. On the plus side, maybe I get extra points for improving it a ton.

if you set the bar low your progress looks so much better....

at least thats my reasoning....

[TheFutureLawyer]

Yeah 88/100 is probably the top score. In got a 76/100 on my last memo and had the second highest grade (curve was 55/100, highest was 80/100). Depends on your professor though. Even in my own school, different professors have a wide range of medians.

Yeah in our class the highest grade on the first memo was like 88% or so, with the median somewhere around 55%.

[ephemeral.bete.noire]

Was wondering if someone might be able to help me out with a little further explanation on the use of signals. Because of the amount of authority expected in our memo and the page limit we were told it would probably be a good idea to utilize some of the basic signals as an efficient way to squeeze in extra authority. We never really spent any time on signal use so I just want to make sure my understanding of some of the BB explanations are correct.

The three support signals I know I'll probably be needing are: Accord; See; See also.

My initial confusion was over the use of "See" as opposed to no signal at all. What level of inference is needed before you should use "See" instead of just using a regular citation with no signal?

Sorry for the long post, just never had any experience using these. If anyone has anything else they could add to further my understanding of proper signal use I would love them forever.

[ph14]

Was wondering if someone might be able to help me out with a little further explanation on the use of signals. Because of the amount of authority expected in our memo and the page limit we were told it would probably be a good idea to utilize some of the basic signals as an efficient way to squeeze in extra authority. We never really spent any time on signal use so I just want to make sure my understanding of some of the BB explanations are correct.

The three support signals I know I'll probably be needing are: Accord; See; See also.

My initial confusion was over the use of "See" as opposed to no signal at all. What level of inference is needed before you should use "See" instead of just using a regular citation with no signal?

Sorry for the long post, just never had any experience using these. If anyone has anything else they could add to further my understanding of proper signal use I would love them forever.

My LRW instructor indicated to err on the side of "See." But he said that (1) there isn't really a clear rule, and (2) it isn't that important. If you think it takes a reasonable inference to get there, definitely use see. I pretty much use it unless I am quoting or taking something basically word for word.

[03121202698008]

Was wondering if someone might be able to help me out with a little further explanation on the use of signals. Because of the amount of authority expected in our memo and the page limit we were told it would probably be a good idea to utilize some of the basic signals as an efficient way to squeeze in extra authority. We never really spent any time on signal use so I just want to make sure my understanding of some of the BB explanations are correct.

The three support signals I know I'll probably be needing are: Accord; See; See also.

My initial confusion was over the use of "See" as opposed to no signal at all. What level of inference is needed before you should use "See" instead of just using a regular citation with no signal?

Sorry for the long post, just never had any experience using these. If anyone has anything else they could add to further my understanding of proper signal use I would love them forever.

My LRW instructor indicated to err on the side of "See." But he said that (1) there isn't really a clear rule, and (2) it isn't that important. If you think it takes a reasonable inference to get there, definitely use see. I pretty much use it unless I am quoting or taking something basically word for word.

On LR, we err on the side of not using it. It is commonly way overused.

[Kabuo]

3700 word limit. Spent the last 6 hours cutting mine down and still at 3752 .

[ph14]

3700 word limit. Spent the last 6 hours cutting mine down and still at 3752 .

Rough. I have a page limit, and I'm not sure how exactly it works to cut down space-- it does not seem that every word is created equal.

[NoleinNY]

Hang in there, 1Ls. While you are down and dirty cutting and editing and rewriting, remember that this is the most important class you will take... And it STILL doesn't teach you how to do real lawyer stuff. HTH.

[ephemeral.bete.noire]

Was wondering if someone might be able to help me out with a little further explanation on the use of signals. Because of the amount of authority expected in our memo and the page limit we were told it would probably be a good idea to utilize some of the basic signals as an efficient way to squeeze in extra authority. We never really spent any time on signal use so I just want to make sure my understanding of some of the BB explanations are correct.

The three support signals I know I'll probably be needing are: Accord; See; See also.

My initial confusion was over the use of "See" as opposed to no signal at all. What level of inference is needed before you should use "See" instead of just using a regular citation with no signal?

Sorry for the long post, just never had any experience using these. If anyone has anything else they could add to further my understanding of proper signal use I would love them forever.

My LRW instructor indicated to err on the side of "See." But he said that (1) there isn't really a clear rule, and (2) it isn't that important. If you think it takes a reasonable inference to get there, definitely use see. I pretty much use it unless I am quoting or taking something basically word for word.

On LR, we err on the side of not using it. It is commonly way overused.

Thanks to you both. Assuming it is a rather substantial leap of logic from what the case states to how you are using it as support for your argument, is it typically a good idea to include an explanatory parenthetical to describe the inference used or at least highlight or summarize the part of the case that is the basis for the inference? I'm guessing that it would be similar to how you would use an explanatory parenthetical when using "see also" to explain the relevance of the case to the initial citation, but then again I'm pretty clueless about signal and parenthetical usage... ugh, I am sooo missing the good old days of my closed memo assignment right about now

[ph14]

Was wondering if someone might be able to help me out with a little further explanation on the use of signals. Because of the amount of authority expected in our memo and the page limit we were told it would probably be a good idea to utilize some of the basic signals as an efficient way to squeeze in extra authority. We never really spent any time on signal use so I just want to make sure my understanding of some of the BB explanations are correct.

The three support signals I know I'll probably be needing are: Accord; See; See also.

My initial confusion was over the use of "See" as opposed to no signal at all. What level of inference is needed before you should use "See" instead of just using a regular citation with no signal?

Sorry for the long post, just never had any experience using these. If anyone has anything else they could add to further my understanding of proper signal use I would love them forever.

My LRW instructor indicated to err on the side of "See." But he said that (1) there isn't really a clear rule, and (2) it isn't that important. If you think it takes a reasonable inference to get there, definitely use see. I pretty much use it unless I am quoting or taking something basically word for word.

On LR, we err on the side of not using it. It is commonly way overused.

Thanks to you both. Assuming it is a rather substantial leap of logic from what the case states to how you are using it as support for your argument, is it typically a good idea to include an explanatory parenthetical to describe the inference used or at least highlight or summarize the part of the case that is the basis for the inference? I'm guessing that it would be similar to how you would use an explanatory parenthetical when using "see also" to explain the relevance of the case to the initial citation, but then again I'm pretty clueless about signal and parenthetical usage... ugh, I am sooo missing the good old days of my closed memo assignment right about now

Haha, I miss the closed memo a little too . I like the topic of this one a bit more though. I mean it comes down to how much space you have and other things, but it sounds like it might be a god idea to put an explanatory parenthetical. I put a few in mine.