steve_nash wrote:
JSUVA2012 wrote:
What are some of the big differences between strong and weak legal writing? Obviously clarity, brevity, and detail are important. But what are some things that stand out?
I improved my grades a lot (went up .2) second semester. I think part of it was my exam organization. Second semester, I wrote introductory paragraphs for each essay, including a roadmap highlighting the major issues. I made sure to have a topic sentence for each paragraph. Also, first semester, I was told constantly--just argue both sides and you'll be fine. Second semester, I didn't always argue both sides; instead, i learned to flesh out which issues were the thorny ones, and which ones deserved a quick dismissal. This was similar to how I wrote my brief--I didn't waste my breath over issues that my side was never going to win. Don't use flowery language and really milk the facts.
This is extremely similar to my experience. During my first semester I tried to find every single issue and argue every side. This ended up distracting my professors and leaving them with the impression that I didn't understand how to "write like a lawyer." In the second semester, I essentially followed the approach advocated in the above post. My goal was to produce uncreative, simple exam answers that were extremely well organized (and therefore easy to grade). I IRAC'd where appropriate, underlined each new claim, and numbered elements and sub paragraphs. I didn't use flowery language, though I threw in a few asides on a policy heavy exam. Most importantly, I focused almost entirely on spotlight issues, tossing away loser claims with a sentence or two. I argued both sides, but only when there was something that was
intentionally ambiguous about the prompt. This turned out to be a very, very good strategy.
I would pay $5,000 to go back and read this post as a 0L.
Would you or someone else provide a quick overview of how you structured an exam providing headings, numbered elements, and sub-paragraphs with an example? How would your heading read?