2+ Writing Courses/Semester Forum

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BeeTeeZ

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2+ Writing Courses/Semester

Post by BeeTeeZ » Wed Sep 20, 2017 5:24 am

Does anyone have any experience taking more than one upper-level writing course during the same semester? I want to do so next spring, but am concerned that it may be problematic; though I can't think of any reason why. Any insight gleaned from first-hand experience would be greatly appreciated.

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CoffeeIsLife

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Re: 2+ Writing Courses/Semester

Post by CoffeeIsLife » Wed Sep 20, 2017 8:33 am

BeeTeeZ wrote:Does anyone have any experience taking more than one upper-level writing course during the same semester? I want to do so next spring, but am concerned that it may be problematic; though I can't think of any reason why. Any insight gleaned from first-hand experience would be greatly appreciated.
I did this Fall Semester of 3L year. I wouldn't suggest it, but its definitely doable. It just makes for a lot of work, and if you are a procrastinator it won't be a fun semester. But if you're on top of you stuff you can manage it.

One thing to consider, is about halfway through the semester the writing starts to run together and if you aren't careful you can end up writing about the wrong topic for the wrong class. Or switch the due dates for materials and turn something in late or end up scrambling when you realize your mistake.

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BeeTeeZ

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Re: 2+ Writing Courses/Semester

Post by BeeTeeZ » Thu Sep 21, 2017 1:16 am

CoffeeIsLife wrote:
BeeTeeZ wrote:Does anyone have any experience taking more than one upper-level writing course during the same semester? I want to do so next spring, but am concerned that it may be problematic; though I can't think of any reason why. Any insight gleaned from first-hand experience would be greatly appreciated.
I did this Fall Semester of 3L year. I wouldn't suggest it, but its definitely doable. It just makes for a lot of work, and if you are a procrastinator it won't be a fun semester. But if you're on top of you stuff you can manage it.

One thing to consider, is about halfway through the semester the writing starts to run together and if you aren't careful you can end up writing about the wrong topic for the wrong class. Or switch the due dates for materials and turn something in late or end up scrambling when you realize your mistake.
Thank you!

NoDayButToday

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Re: 2+ Writing Courses/Semester

Post by NoDayButToday » Fri Sep 22, 2017 2:49 pm

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Last edited by NoDayButToday on Wed Nov 01, 2017 12:29 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Slytherpuff

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Re: 2+ Writing Courses/Semester

Post by Slytherpuff » Sat Sep 23, 2017 1:32 am

I did it almost every semester after 1L year. If you're used to writing a lot of papers from undergrad and aren't the biggest fan of law school exams, you might enjoy paper classes a little bit more. Paper grades are typically padded a bit more and you aren't usually stuck on a curve. You might have professors who will give you feedback on rough drafts (so you're kind of handed an A- or above on a silver platter at that point).

The middle and end of the semester will be ROUGH when you're working on papers, but once you have them knocked out you can pour all your remaining effort into studying for exams. It can be nice to have an easier final exam period when you already have some of your classes out of the way (if you have classes where your final paper was due the last week of the semester, for example) - you might end up doing better in your exam classes that semester too.

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BeeTeeZ

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Re: 2+ Writing Courses/Semester

Post by BeeTeeZ » Sat Sep 23, 2017 2:04 am

Thank you above posters!

I wrote a ton during undergrad and am not a great exam-taker, so it sounds like taking two writing courses might be to my advantage - notwithstanding perhaps more "work" late in the semester.

I really appreciate the insight; I think I'm gonna go for it.

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tortsandtiaras

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Re: 2+ Writing Courses/Semester

Post by tortsandtiaras » Sat Sep 23, 2017 10:29 am

If this is any consolation, last fall I took 4 writing (2 rigorous writing and 2 regular writing + law review note) and I got all A's in them. The key to this many writing classes is to start writing the FIRST week of school. Do not wait until the last month to get started. Every weekend, I would alternate between the papers and work on them for 8 hours each day. It was tough, but during exam period (only one exam), I was solid and aced that too.

Hope this helps!

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BeeTeeZ

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Re: 2+ Writing Courses/Semester

Post by BeeTeeZ » Sat Sep 23, 2017 3:12 pm

tortsandtiaras wrote:If this is any consolation, last fall I took 4 writing (2 rigorous writing and 2 regular writing + law review note) and I got all A's in them. The key to this many writing classes is to start writing the FIRST week of school. Do not wait until the last month to get started. Every weekend, I would alternate between the papers and work on them for 8 hours each day. It was tough, but during exam period (only one exam), I was solid and aced that too.

Hope this helps!
This definitely helps, thank you!

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Re: 2+ Writing Courses/Semester

Post by mister logical » Thu Sep 28, 2017 11:07 pm

I took 2 seminars in one semester once, and 1 seminar every semester both sides of that one semester. I wrote and completed the first paper in the first 1.5 months of the semester, and completed the second one in the last 1.5 months. I received an A and an A+, and published both of them in journals from two other schools. Researching and writing is my strong suit by far, and my grades were thankful for that. I'd say it isn't that much work because your grade will often be off the curve or on a very nice curve. As long as you go to your professor and decide on a topic within the first 2 weeks (can't stress this enough, I knew what both of my topics were within a week of the semester starting) of the semester for both classes and get started, you will have a smooth semester, no doubt. I basically just wrote a page or two every few days and edited the rest of the time.

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BeeTeeZ

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Re: 2+ Writing Courses/Semester

Post by BeeTeeZ » Fri Sep 29, 2017 12:53 am

mister logical wrote:I took 2 seminars in one semester once, and 1 seminar every semester both sides of that one semester. I wrote and completed the first paper in the first 1.5 months of the semester, and completed the second one in the last 1.5 months. I received an A and an A+, and published both of them in journals from two other schools. Researching and writing is my strong suit by far, and my grades were thankful for that. I'd say it isn't that much work because your grade will often be off the curve or on a very nice curve. As long as you go to your professor and decide on a topic within the first 2 weeks (can't stress this enough, I knew what both of my topics were within a week of the semester starting) of the semester for both classes and get started, you will have a smooth semester, no doubt. I basically just wrote a page or two every few days and edited the rest of the time.
Thank you for this!

That's really impressive, I didn't even know a student could publish in another school's journal; let alone in two schools. That must look beautiful on your resume.

As someone who wants to be a litigator, improving my research and writing skills is my top priority. I'll definitely take your advice and decide on my topic(s) quickly.

mister logical

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Re: 2+ Writing Courses/Semester

Post by mister logical » Fri Sep 29, 2017 2:32 am

BeeTeeZ wrote:
mister logical wrote:I took 2 seminars in one semester once, and 1 seminar every semester both sides of that one semester. I wrote and completed the first paper in the first 1.5 months of the semester, and completed the second one in the last 1.5 months. I received an A and an A+, and published both of them in journals from two other schools. Researching and writing is my strong suit by far, and my grades were thankful for that. I'd say it isn't that much work because your grade will often be off the curve or on a very nice curve. As long as you go to your professor and decide on a topic within the first 2 weeks (can't stress this enough, I knew what both of my topics were within a week of the semester starting) of the semester for both classes and get started, you will have a smooth semester, no doubt. I basically just wrote a page or two every few days and edited the rest of the time.
Thank you for this!

That's really impressive, I didn't even know a student could publish in another school's journal; let alone in two schools. That must look beautiful on your resume.

As someone who wants to be a litigator, improving my research and writing skills is my top priority. I'll definitely take your advice and decide on my topic(s) quickly.
I published in 5 journals by the time I graduated, including offers from two law reviews at different schools, so don't listen to anyone who says you can't do that, you can as long as you give a unique take on a novel issue. Write your papers, get feedback, then head over to Scholastica and submit it to as many journals as you can (I only submitted my articles to T1/t-14 schools). THe #1 feedback I got from editors was my papers were always very polished, which they were because I was writing them for a grade and not just to get published. I'd always submit them with a works cited page and everything formatted nicely. The less work the staff have to do, and the more interesting your topics the more likely you'll get published.

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