WRITING COMPETITION - How bad can the submission be? Forum

[Tmootcourt secure]

Any law reviewers out there?

1. How many writing competition submissions are incomplete? (How the hell does anyone who isn't 24/7 finish in time? It can take a day just to brief the cases. One day to write it. One day to endnote it. One day to Bluebook.)

2. Do you even entertain incomplete submissions?

3. What's worse:
a. Submitting a complete, Bluebooked paper with only half the necessary endnotes... and the end notes that are there are just straight quotations or case names.
b. Submitting an incomplete, non-fully Bluebooked paper, with only half the necessary endnotes... but the endnotes are that are there are complete.

I already know I'm fucked for tomorrow, but this knowledge would... help.

[Tmootcourt secure]

p.s. I spent 14 hours straight overnight just to write the damn thing. I just don't see how all of the submissions can be complete.

[thesealocust]

edited / never mind

[OperaSoprano]

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, especially since I start mine tomorrow, but I have. My 2L advisor said that a decent number of people didn't finish last year, but if we turned in something resembling a note, we'd probably get on a journal. I want to find that comforting.

Second the meticulous bit, though: are we seriously supposed to be briefing these cases?

[eth3n]

my schools FAQ:

"Q: Do we have to submit a completed packet? A: You must complete all portions of the write on assignment (the judgment of whether or not something is complete obviously rests with law review) to be eligible for law review"

[hi_im_josh]

It depends--are you top 5%? You can always grade on if your school allows it. If not, and you are just hoping to make law review based on a substandard submission, it does not bode well. Maybe a secondary journal.

[06132010]

I thought our options were "complete it" or "don't bother."

[dj_spin]

I must be confused... I thought Law Review Write-Ons were a week long?

[rando]

I am almost finished grading write-on submissions for law review.

Our competition was 10 days long. Roughly 150 pages of closed materials + a bluebook quiz. I have to grade about 28, 24 page submissions.

I will grade a submission regardless of "completeness," but unless you are grading on, you will not meet the cutoff for law review if you turn in a substandard note.

Though a huge part of the submission and grading is substance and content, a major part of the grading is structure, writing style, and grammar. You will get yourself a long way if you are complete, meticulous with grammar and typos, and make a simple and coherent argument. Don't spend too much time trying to make very detailed and multiple step arguments. If I agree with you then it will give you an extra few points but will probably take away from a different argument/analysis given the space constraints. If I don't agree with you then I might think you're dumb and you still take away from a different argument/analysis.

Things that piss me off and surely affect my subconscious grading of the rest of the casenote:

Egregious bluebooking errors - even though you are not graded much on bluebooking in the writing portion (because of bluebook quiz), I hate ridiculous bluebook errors and it shows that you don't care. Not good.

More than one typo - some people will probably keep their standards right at that zero mark, not many will give you the benefit of the doubt on more than a couple.

Political/Religious slant - I don't care which way it goes, or even if I tend to agree, if you include this in your writing submission it shows that you have no filter, and we don't want you on LR.

Missing the forest for the trees - tons of submissions make very small nitpicky points about certain cases but then fail to analyze something blatantly important like a major dissent or leave out the case that distinguished the nitpicky point you are making.

Probably some more... feel free to ask questions

[TTT-LS]

,

[steve_nash]

I don't plan on accepting any submissions that are incomplete or half-assed. Put simply, there are more than enough good submissions that I don't have to entertain submissions that resemble what you suggest.

[mollie]

What about submissions that don't meet the page limit? Mine was a page short.

[06132010]

What about submissions that don't meet the page limit? Mine was a page short.

you know what limit means?

[ZXCVBNM]

this all varies from school to school

[LjakW]

What about submissions that don't meet the page limit? Mine was a page short.

you know what limit means?

I'm sure the poster knows what limit means; it's still a valid question.

All I can say is that the sample submissions provided that were chosen by Law Review at my school were all within about 25 words of the word limit.

[OperaSoprano]

I am updating this from the trenches of my own writing competition. I have confirmation that some schools reached attrition rates of 50%, and I understand why.

[let/them/eat/cake]

I am updating this from the trenches of my own writing competition. I have confirmation that some schools reached attrition rates of 50%, and I understand why.

Def not surprised. The writing competition was hands-down the worst part of 1L year. I'd have rather gone through another round of finals immediately, than do that write-on competition. 6 page "editing test", i've never seen such a clusterfuck of error.

this is how i felt about the edit test, after 3 straight days and a review of my doc in track changes mode....

[OperaSoprano]

I am updating this from the trenches of my own writing competition. I have confirmation that some schools reached attrition rates of 50%, and I understand why.

Def not surprised. The writing competition was hands-down the worst part of 1L year. I'd have rather gone through another round of finals immediately, than do that write-on competition. 6 page "editing test", i've never seen such a clusterfuck of error.

this is how i felt about the edit test, after 3 straight days and a review of my doc in track changes mode....

You have my full sympathies. I don't even want to tell you about ours, and I probably can't, because I'm not finished with it, but this will do it fine:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFeaXqWm ... re=related

"Father of the day, oh sun...
I renounce your light!"

My French completely sucks, and I am out translation, but I so want to learn this when I have time to sing again.

[mbw]

I am updating this from the trenches of my own writing competition. I have confirmation that some schools reached attrition rates of 50%, and I understand why.

Greetings, comrade. I only hope I survive the next 14 hours (due at noon tomorrow)... if not, I guess my trench will be an easy grave to fill...

[BobSacamano]

The Westlaw tables at my school were covered with stacks upon stacks of cases people had printed out for the writing competition and never picked up. I would assume most of these people just gave up.

[OperaSoprano]

I finished. At the eleventh hour, but it got done. I'm not going to claim it was good, but it was finished thanks to the people who threatened to blackmail me on each of the four occasions I tried to quit. I wasn't very happy then, but seriously, thanks, guys. That was one hell of an effective threat.

To everyone done: did you have to hand transfer all your bluebook edits 57,000 times? I would have applied to more journals, but I underestimated just how long that would take. So very much hoping one of three gets me in.

[OperaSoprano]

I am updating this from the trenches of my own writing competition. I have confirmation that some schools reached attrition rates of 50%, and I understand why.

Greetings, comrade. I only hope I survive the next 14 hours (due at noon tomorrow)... if not, I guess my trench will be an easy grave to fill...

Oh my, good luck! You'll see this when you finish, so congratulations, actually!

[mbw]

I am updating this from the trenches of my own writing competition. I have confirmation that some schools reached attrition rates of 50%, and I understand why.

Greetings, comrade. I only hope I survive the next 14 hours (due at noon tomorrow)... if not, I guess my trench will be an easy grave to fill...

Oh my, good luck! You'll see this when you finish, so congratulations, actually!

Is...... alive......

Barely. I haven't slept in 36 hours... Unfortunately, it will be at least another six before my kids go to bed...

Congrats on making it, OS! and good on your blackmailing friends.

[OperaSoprano]

I am updating this from the trenches of my own writing competition. I have confirmation that some schools reached attrition rates of 50%, and I understand why.

Greetings, comrade. I only hope I survive the next 14 hours (due at noon tomorrow)... if not, I guess my trench will be an easy grave to fill...

Oh my, good luck! You'll see this when you finish, so congratulations, actually!

Is...... alive......

Barely. I haven't slept in 36 hours... Unfortunately, it will be at least another six before my kids go to bed...

Congrats on making it, OS! and good on your blackmailing friends.

Ooooh, congrats! You made it! Get some sleep as soon as you can!