Writing Sample Issue Forum

[Anonymous User]

So I didn't try very hard in my (ungraded) 1L legal writing course, and my work product from that is pretty shoddy. I also didn't do any formal legal writing (memos or briefs) for my 1L summer job. During 2L I wrote one 35 page analytical paper for a seminar class. It's a good paper but it's kind of a silly subject (animal law/industrial farming), and of course it's a paper not a memo or brief, but it's properly bluebooked and I'm probably going to submit it as a comment for my journal. I was wondering if I could turn in a 15 page excerpt from that paper as a writing sample to a firm I'm interviewing for that requested one.

Thoughts?

[Kratos]

that's probly fine

[fauxpsych]

Is there a writing center on campus that you can go to to try to bring that 1L memo up to a level you are comfortable with? Some places don't look too favorable on a seminar paper as it isn't really legal writing.

Also don't feel constrained to make your sample one continuous piece. My final sample had a table of contents and had 3 pages of a fact summary from a moot brief, 2 page office memo, and a 3 page legal analysis part of an early draft of a decision with a cite to the published decision to compare with what the judge tossed.

For 2L summer it was a similar combo of my 1L writing memo and 1L writing brief, both were pretty meh, but I incorporated the feedback I got and they were sufficient.

[Anonymous User]

Is there a writing center on campus that you can go to to try to bring that 1L memo up to a level you are comfortable with? Some places don't look too favorable on a seminar paper as it isn't really legal writing.

I would work on it if finals weren't right around the corner. I have 3 papers to research and write and I feel like I have no time to dive back in to that 1L brief, research and rewrite it. It's in pretty bad shape, so I feel like even if I put some time into it it would be mediocre at best, whereas my seminar paper is A+ quality.

[fauxpsych]

Is there a writing center on campus that you can go to to try to bring that 1L memo up to a level you are comfortable with? Some places don't look too favorable on a seminar paper as it isn't really legal writing.

I would work on it if finals weren't right around the corner. I have 3 papers to research and write and I feel like I have no time to dive back in to that 1L brief, research and rewrite it. It's in pretty bad shape, so I feel like even if I put some time into it it would be mediocre at best, whereas my seminar paper is A+ quality.

Maybe you wouldn't have to edit the whole brief, just an excerpt to show that you can perform the type of legal writing most similar to what you'd be assigned at an internship, which I don't believe would be academic writing. My suggestion is to include both.