LR writing competition submission as OCI writing sample Forum

[Anonymous User]

LR writing competition submission as an OCI writing sample? Most firms seem to want 10 pages, my LR sample was 14 inclusive of footnotes (7 without), and my writing for the summer has been substantially shorter than that.

[Anonymous User]

Read your LR competition guidelines. Many that I know of strictly prohibit use of materials for non-competition purposes, or disclosure to unauthorized sources.

If you're going to use it, clear it w/ your LR first.

[chasgoose]

Not to mention that many writing competitions feature edited/fake sources... not that they would notice, but still why risk it. Even if that's not an issue, writing competition samples aren't really great pieces of work since you are so constrained by what sources they give you.

[Arbiter213]

LR writing competition submission as an OCI writing sample? Most firms seem to want 10 pages, my LR sample was 14 inclusive of footnotes (7 without), and my writing for the summer has been substantially shorter than that.

Writing samples are generally supposed to be work product. A note is note work product.

[Anonymous User]

LR writing competition submission as an OCI writing sample? Most firms seem to want 10 pages, my LR sample was 14 inclusive of footnotes (7 without), and my writing for the summer has been substantially shorter than that.

Having graded a fair number of LR writing competitions in the past, I would recommend against this. They tend not to be as polished or as well put together as other writing samples.

[Anonymous User]

LR writing competition submission as an OCI writing sample? Most firms seem to want 10 pages, my LR sample was 14 inclusive of footnotes (7 without), and my writing for the summer has been substantially shorter than that.

Writing samples are generally supposed to be work product. A note is note work product.

No. A writing sample simply needs to be legal. Often times, rising 2Ls will not have any work product that they can use by the time they need to send stuff for OCI. I can tell you that during my 2L summer, less than half the work product I put together could be redacted to the point that I could use it as a writing sample. And, for judges, many prefer academic writing samples.

[Arbiter213]

LR writing competition submission as an OCI writing sample? Most firms seem to want 10 pages, my LR sample was 14 inclusive of footnotes (7 without), and my writing for the summer has been substantially shorter than that.

Writing samples are generally supposed to be work product. A note is note work product.

No. A writing sample simply needs to be legal. Often times, rising 2Ls will not have any work product that they can use by the time they need to send stuff for OCI. I can tell you that during my 2L summer, less than half the work product I put together could be redacted to the point that I could use it as a writing sample. And, for judges, many prefer academic writing samples.

"Work product." I meant the format, not literally from a job. And who the fuck is talking about judges.

Also great use of anon.

[GertrudePerkins]

I used my LR competition piece at OCI, largely with success. But that doesn't mean it's automatically a good idea. Did you get on to LR? If so, that would seem to suggest it's a quality piece of writing. If not, you might want to have someone you trust read it to make sure it's okay. And as someone else suggested, make sure there's not some stupid rule against using the competition piece for other purposes.

[letsdoit]

I used my LR competition piece at OCI, largely with success. But that doesn't mean it's automatically a good idea. Did you get on to LR? If so, that would seem to suggest it's a quality piece of writing. If not, you might want to have someone you trust read it to make sure it's okay. And as someone else suggested, make sure there's not some stupid rule against using the competition piece for other purposes.

how did you edit it down?

[lolwat]

I used my LR competition piece at OCI, largely with success. But that doesn't mean it's automatically a good idea. Did you get on to LR? If so, that would seem to suggest it's a quality piece of writing. If not, you might want to have someone you trust read it to make sure it's okay. And as someone else suggested, make sure there's not some stupid rule against using the competition piece for other purposes.

Agree with this.

As for how you edit it down, it depends on what the format is required on the writing competition. Given my school's writing competition, "editing it down" would basically just mean changing the font back to Times New Roman (or some other smaller font, we used something dumb like Courier New), single-spacing the footnotes/endnotes and putting them back down to size 10-11 (again, we used something dumb like double-spacing end-notes on size 12 Courier New).

If you need to make substantive edits, you can probably just edit out anything that has to do with facts other than the absolutely relevant, the conclusion, etc... basically just keep in the legal analysis that you did.

[letsdoit]

I used my LR competition piece at OCI, largely with success. But that doesn't mean it's automatically a good idea. Did you get on to LR? If so, that would seem to suggest it's a quality piece of writing. If not, you might want to have someone you trust read it to make sure it's okay. And as someone else suggested, make sure there's not some stupid rule against using the competition piece for other purposes.

Agree with this.

As for how you edit it down, it depends on what the format is required on the writing competition. Given my school's writing competition, "editing it down" would basically just mean changing the font back to Times New Roman (or some other smaller font, we used something dumb like Courier New), single-spacing the footnotes/endnotes and putting them back down to size 10-11 (again, we used something dumb like double-spacing end-notes on size 12 Courier New).

If you need to make substantive edits, you can probably just edit out anything that has to do with facts other than the absolutely relevant, the conclusion, etc... basically just keep in the legal analysis that you did.

At the moment, my write-on piece is about 16 pages. I like the idea of using it because I wrote-on to LR with it. Any idea what size I should be getting it down to, page-wise? Thank you!

[GertrudePerkins]

I used my LR competition piece at OCI, largely with success. But that doesn't mean it's automatically a good idea. Did you get on to LR? If so, that would seem to suggest it's a quality piece of writing. If not, you might want to have someone you trust read it to make sure it's okay. And as someone else suggested, make sure there's not some stupid rule against using the competition piece for other purposes.

how did you edit it down?

In my case I just had to reformat and I was down to a reasonable page length. Sorry if that's not an especially helpful answer.

[Anonymous User]

I used my LR competition piece at OCI, largely with success. But that doesn't mean it's automatically a good idea. Did you get on to LR? If so, that would seem to suggest it's a quality piece of writing. If not, you might want to have someone you trust read it to make sure it's okay. And as someone else suggested, make sure there's not some stupid rule against using the competition piece for other purposes.

OP here. yes, i got on LR with it and it was most definitely a write-on scenario, and other people at my school (current associates) used it in the past...i just don't know because so many people reacted strongly that i shouldnt use it. i do feel like its my strongest writing though...

[letsdoit]

I used my LR competition piece at OCI, largely with success. But that doesn't mean it's automatically a good idea. Did you get on to LR? If so, that would seem to suggest it's a quality piece of writing. If not, you might want to have someone you trust read it to make sure it's okay. And as someone else suggested, make sure there's not some stupid rule against using the competition piece for other purposes.

OP here. yes, i got on LR with it and it was most definitely a write-on scenario, and other people at my school (current associates) used it in the past...i just don't know because so many people reacted strongly that i shouldnt use it. i do feel like its my strongest writing though...

How many pages can it be, TOPS?

[Anonymous User]

My T14 lists the competition submission note as a possible writing sample, so I don't think it's that frowned upon. A work memo would probably be preferable, but in my case, I don't have anything that can be redacted enough.

[lolwat]

I used my LR competition piece at OCI, largely with success. But that doesn't mean it's automatically a good idea. Did you get on to LR? If so, that would seem to suggest it's a quality piece of writing. If not, you might want to have someone you trust read it to make sure it's okay. And as someone else suggested, make sure there's not some stupid rule against using the competition piece for other purposes.

OP here. yes, i got on LR with it and it was most definitely a write-on scenario, and other people at my school (current associates) used it in the past...i just don't know because so many people reacted strongly that i shouldnt use it. i do feel like its my strongest writing though...

How many pages can it be, TOPS?

Sorry I missed that question. For the most part I don't think writing samples should be more than 10 pages long. Hope the answer helps even though it's like a week late.