Ok To Talk About The Law in the Abstract? Forum

[Corwin]

A situation I encountered as a result of my WE made me start to think about law school and the role the law can play in certain areas of society. Is writing about that in the context of my WE ok? Conventional advice that I've seen seems to advise staying away from abstract arguments or claims. I think I have a lot of good tie-ins though. My WE experience for one, and there were also a few articles in the LR of a school I will apply to that get at the concept I'm talking about. Thoughts?

[071816]

A situation I encountered as a result of my WE made me start to think about law school and the role the law can play in certain areas of society. Is writing about that in the context of my WE ok? Conventional advice that I've seen seems to advise staying away from abstract arguments or claims. I think I have a lot of good tie-ins though. My WE experience for one, and there were also a few articles in the LR of a school I will apply to that get at the concept I'm talking about. Thoughts?

You can touch on it, but I wouldn't make your entire personal statement about "the law." It may come off as a bit cliche. Personal statements should be personal, so you should try to weave what you were talking about above with a statement that tells a compelling story about who you are.

[Corwin]

A situation I encountered as a result of my WE made me start to think about law school and the role the law can play in certain areas of society. Is writing about that in the context of my WE ok? Conventional advice that I've seen seems to advise staying away from abstract arguments or claims. I think I have a lot of good tie-ins though. My WE experience for one, and there were also a few articles in the LR of a school I will apply to that get at the concept I'm talking about. Thoughts?

You can touch on it, but I wouldn't make your entire personal statement about "the law." It may come off as a bit cliche. Personal statements should be personal, so you should try to weave what you were talking about above with a statement that tells a compelling story about who you are.

Those were similar to my thoughts. In my current draft, the first two paragraphs are in the abstract and I use the concept I introduce to weave a narrative about myself, my experience, and why I want to attend law school. So maybe only like ~15% of my personal statement is about the concept I am talking about?

Sorry to be so vague, but my statement irrefutably outs me so I am avoiding posting it.

[071816]

A situation I encountered as a result of my WE made me start to think about law school and the role the law can play in certain areas of society. Is writing about that in the context of my WE ok? Conventional advice that I've seen seems to advise staying away from abstract arguments or claims. I think I have a lot of good tie-ins though. My WE experience for one, and there were also a few articles in the LR of a school I will apply to that get at the concept I'm talking about. Thoughts?

You can touch on it, but I wouldn't make your entire personal statement about "the law." It may come off as a bit cliche. Personal statements should be personal, so you should try to weave what you were talking about above with a statement that tells a compelling story about who you are.

Those were similar to my thoughts. In my current draft, the first two paragraphs are in the abstract and I use the concept I introduce to weave a narrative about myself, my experience, and why I want to attend law school. So maybe only like ~15% of my personal statement is about the concept I am talking about?

Sorry to be so vague, but my statement irrefutably outs me so I am avoiding posting it.

Sounds good then. I can't say much more without seeing your actual personal statement. Good luck and remember it is less about what you say and more about how you say it. Just my thoughts.

[rinkrat19]

From what you describe, it sounds like it could work. Just keep in mind that the people who will be reading it know a lot more about "the law" than you do. So it's ok to muse a little and tie it back to yourself and your motivation for attending law school, but don't try to inform or teach them anything!

[kublaikahn]

What abstract argument or claim are you referring to? do you have any text you can post?

[icecold3000]

OP, you might find this link relevant.

http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/ ... _impressed

[Corwin]

OP, you might find this link relevant.

http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/ ... _impressed

I'm very specific about the particular aspect of the law I'm interesting in, so I don't think I'm falling into that pit.

[LSATclincher]

I'm with the above. I'd need to see it to give an opinion. But talking about work experience is usually a good thing since many incoming law students don't have much of it.