Paper tips? Padding? Forum

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ap1987

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Paper tips? Padding?

Post by ap1987 » Mon Mar 03, 2014 1:33 pm

Any tips for writing a 30 page law school paper?

I need it to graduate. I am on page 6 and I've been working on it for 2 days :( . Right now, I've mostly just gone into introductory stuff (thesis, introduction, how the statute I'm analyzing works etc. I haven't really gotten into the meat of my argument and analysis yet).

Before law school, the biggest paper I wrote was 15 pages.

NotMyRealName09

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Re: Paper tips? Padding?

Post by NotMyRealName09 » Mon Mar 03, 2014 4:59 pm

Read a law review article that is 30 pages long. Do what they did, but like, your own work.

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DildaMan

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Re: Paper tips? Padding?

Post by DildaMan » Mon Mar 03, 2014 5:06 pm

ap1987 wrote:Any tips for writing a 30 page law school paper?

I need it to graduate. I am on page 6 and I've been working on it for 2 days :( . Right now, I've mostly just gone into introductory stuff (thesis, introduction, how the statute I'm analyzing works etc. I haven't really gotten into the meat of my argument and analysis yet).

Before law school, the biggest paper I wrote was 15 pages.
50% of the paper could be footnotes.

09042014

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Re: Paper tips? Padding?

Post by 09042014 » Mon Mar 03, 2014 5:08 pm

Block quotes

Cite every sentence even if it's just id.

Century Schoolbook is a big font and it's SCOTUS approved

DOuble return each paragraph.

Change it so that paragraphs don't hang to the next page.

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rinkrat19

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Re: Paper tips? Padding?

Post by rinkrat19 » Mon Mar 03, 2014 5:10 pm

Add more subtopics.

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patogordo

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Re: Paper tips? Padding?

Post by patogordo » Mon Mar 03, 2014 5:46 pm

footnotes are key. add random explanatory footnotes for everything. doesn't have to be just for citations.

mushybrain

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Re: Paper tips? Padding?

Post by mushybrain » Mon Mar 03, 2014 6:54 pm

Explain background information wherever you can possibly justify doing so (is there a line of cases that applies? start typing), get chatty in footnotes (and give everything a see also, with explanation about everything they say too), spend a significant amount of space addressing counterarguments and shooting them down. Propose a way forward and blab about that. If your paper is well-supported, you'll take up an outrageous amount of space with footnotes without even trying.

gregfootball2001

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Re: Paper tips? Padding?

Post by gregfootball2001 » Tue Mar 04, 2014 1:31 pm

Find a really long quote in a case. Paraphrase the quote in the body, then cite to the case and put the quote. Takes up oodles of room.

Also, cite to websites. Many sites have reeeeeally long URLs.

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Bikeflip

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Re: Paper tips? Padding?

Post by Bikeflip » Tue Mar 04, 2014 4:04 pm

In your footnotes, if the title is long, keep citing the whole thing. Use hereinafter style cites sparingly. Don't use internet citations if possible. Instead use the book citation form and then add an "available at" url for everything you can.

In your text, expand your points by a few words so that each paragraph ends with one word on a new line.

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emptyflare

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Re: Paper tips? Padding?

Post by emptyflare » Wed Mar 05, 2014 1:14 am

Bikeflip wrote:In your text, expand your points by a few words so that each paragraph ends with one word on a new line.
Had not heard about this before, nice

rad lulz

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Re: Paper tips? Padding?

Post by rad lulz » Wed Mar 05, 2014 1:19 am

j

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