Law Review Write Ons Forum

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gobosox

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Law Review Write Ons

Post by gobosox » Thu Sep 18, 2014 5:49 pm

I am a 1L and understand that this is a LONG way off, but what goes into the law review write on? I'm just curious since we're starting to go more in depth on citations and things like that, which is making my head spin, and I'm told that is a lot of what it takes to write on to law review.

Understand grades are a very large component, but I'm just curious about the write on competition.

Was kind of surprised there wasn't more info on the site about this. There are 100 "how to get good grades" articles (most of which are fantastic help, btw) but no "how to write on to law review" posts. Is it just editing? I assume it varies from school to school, but any overall info would be great!

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Re: Law Review Write Ons

Post by WHJTMG178 » Thu Sep 18, 2014 5:55 pm

gobosox wrote:I am a 1L and understand that this is a LONG way off, but what goes into the law review write on? I'm just curious since we're starting to go more in depth on citations and things like that, which is making my head spin, and I'm told that is a lot of what it takes to write on to law review.

Understand grades are a very large component, but I'm just curious about the write on competition.

Was kind of surprised there wasn't more info on the site about this. There are 100 "how to get good grades" articles (most of which are fantastic help, btw) but no "how to write on to law review" posts. Is it just editing? I assume it varies from school to school, but any overall info would be great!

Law review write on is just writing a paper. Read a few law review articles to get a handle on academic writing. Legal methods class will help you learn "legal writing."

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BVest

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Re: Law Review Write Ons

Post by BVest » Thu Sep 18, 2014 7:45 pm

WHJTMG178 wrote: Law review write on is just writing a paper.
Unless your school's competition also includes cite checking and/or editing, and I believe your school does have something more than the written product.

If it involves cite check, that will probably be 12-20 different sources where you're given a copy of the source and you have to provide a proper bluebook citation. It won't be all cases like in LRW. It will include some domestic cases and statutes, maybe some foreign material, maybe some pop culture, some secondary sources of various types (LR, treatise, etc.), books, speeches/interviews, etc. Basically, if there's a bluebook entry about citing to it, it's fair game.

If it involves editing, there will likely be between 7 and 20 pages from one or more draft law review articles and you will be given a copy of the LR's proper editing marks. Using that, you will be required to edit the article.

As far as grades: All schools use grades in some way. Here are some of the ways they can do that (you need to look into what your school does and doesn't use... it can be a combination of these, and this is not meant to be exhaustive):

Automatic Admission Floor: LR takes everyone top X% (5 or 10) who applies. Alternately, some schools require that you not only apply, but also put faith some minimum quality effort.

Weighting: They give a raw score to the application and then add in or multiply in some bonus for grades.

Eligibility Floor: You must be in top Y% to qualify for LR (e.g. 50%). Among those who are in top Y% (occasionally applied only to those who are not also in top X% if there's an Automatic Floor), the best scores on the application get in.
Last edited by BVest on Sat Jan 27, 2018 5:59 am, edited 1 time in total.

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jbagelboy

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Re: Law Review Write Ons

Post by jbagelboy » Thu Sep 18, 2014 8:17 pm

our school doesn't produce exact rubrics, but they award 15 spots for write-on exclusively, which has a citation portion (but its not anything you could try to "learn" fall of 1L), and the remaining 30 based on *roughly* 1/3 grades, 1/3 write-on, 1/3 diversity

gobosox

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Re: Law Review Write Ons

Post by gobosox » Fri Sep 19, 2014 10:25 pm

BVest wrote:
Unless your school's competition also includes cite checking and/or editing, and I believe your school does have something more than the written product.

If it involves cite check, that will probably be 12-20 different sources where you're given a copy of the source and you have to provide a proper bluebook citation. It won't be all cases like in LRW. It will include some domestic cases and statutes, maybe some foreign material, maybe some pop culture, some secondary sources of various types (LR, treatise, etc.), books, speeches/interviews, etc. Basically, if there's a bluebook entry about citing to it, it's fair game.

If it involves editing, there will likely be between 7 and 20 pages from one or more draft law review articles and you will be given a copy of the LR's proper editing marks. Using that, you will be required to edit the article.
This doesn't sound especially time-consuming. Why is it a 2-3 day marathon event? Is there also a paper as a previous poster noted?

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A. Nony Mouse

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Re: Law Review Write Ons

Post by A. Nony Mouse » Fri Sep 19, 2014 10:36 pm

There is usually also a paper, yes - the above is on top of the paper.

And there are schools where grades are a really really minimal factor (but my sense is that grades are huge at most T-14s).

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Re: Law Review Write Ons

Post by FuturePanhandler » Fri Sep 19, 2014 11:25 pm

jbagelboy wrote:our school doesn't produce exact rubrics, but they award 15 spots for write-on exclusively, which has a citation portion (but its not anything you could try to "learn" fall of 1L), and the remaining 30 based on *roughly* 1/3 grades, 1/3 write-on, 1/3 diversity
1/3 diversity? Do the handouts ever end?

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sesto elemento

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Re: Law Review Write Ons

Post by sesto elemento » Fri Sep 19, 2014 11:47 pm

FuturePanhandler wrote:
jbagelboy wrote:our school doesn't produce exact rubrics, but they award 15 spots for write-on exclusively, which has a citation portion (but its not anything you could try to "learn" fall of 1L), and the remaining 30 based on *roughly* 1/3 grades, 1/3 write-on, 1/3 diversity
1/3 diversity? Do the handouts ever end?
Yes. At UChicago, the law review journal doesn't reserve any spots based on diversity.

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jbagelboy

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Re: Law Review Write Ons

Post by jbagelboy » Sat Sep 20, 2014 11:36 am

FuturePanhandler wrote:
jbagelboy wrote:our school doesn't produce exact rubrics, but they award 15 spots for write-on exclusively, which has a citation portion (but its not anything you could try to "learn" fall of 1L), and the remaining 30 based on *roughly* 1/3 grades, 1/3 write-on, 1/3 diversity
1/3 diversity? Do the handouts ever end?
Just fyi mods this wasn't what I was trying to communicate/start

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patogordo

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Re: Law Review Write Ons

Post by patogordo » Sat Sep 20, 2014 11:43 am

FuturePanhandler wrote:
jbagelboy wrote:our school doesn't produce exact rubrics, but they award 15 spots for write-on exclusively, which has a citation portion (but its not anything you could try to "learn" fall of 1L), and the remaining 30 based on *roughly* 1/3 grades, 1/3 write-on, 1/3 diversity
1/3 diversity? Do the handouts ever end?
nope, you can go from birth to president without doing any work

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BVest

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Re: Law Review Write Ons

Post by BVest » Sat Sep 20, 2014 12:30 pm

patogordo wrote:you can go from birth to president without doing any work
How does GWB qualify as "diversity"?
Last edited by BVest on Sat Jan 27, 2018 5:58 am, edited 1 time in total.

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patogordo

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Re: Law Review Write Ons

Post by patogordo » Sat Sep 20, 2014 12:32 pm

BVest wrote:
patogordo wrote:you can go from birth to president without doing any work
How does GWB qualify as "diversity"?
He's in the 1 percent. How much more diverse can you be?

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SilverE2

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Re: Law Review Write Ons

Post by SilverE2 » Sat Sep 20, 2014 12:58 pm

gobosox wrote:
BVest wrote:
Unless your school's competition also includes cite checking and/or editing, and I believe your school does have something more than the written product.

If it involves cite check, that will probably be 12-20 different sources where you're given a copy of the source and you have to provide a proper bluebook citation. It won't be all cases like in LRW. It will include some domestic cases and statutes, maybe some foreign material, maybe some pop culture, some secondary sources of various types (LR, treatise, etc.), books, speeches/interviews, etc. Basically, if there's a bluebook entry about citing to it, it's fair game.

If it involves editing, there will likely be between 7 and 20 pages from one or more draft law review articles and you will be given a copy of the LR's proper editing marks. Using that, you will be required to edit the article.
This doesn't sound especially time-consuming. Why is it a 2-3 day marathon event? Is there also a paper as a previous poster noted?
You have to write a paper too. My competition was a week, and I spent every waking hour not eating or sleeping on the application for a week straight. It was extremely stressful, and probably the most stressful part of law school. The competition at my school started the day of my last final. I ended up writing on to LR, but the process certainly wasn't fun.

*Edit*

Oh, I got the lowest possible graded score in legal writing both semesters of 1L year. So I don't believe that success in the competition amounts to anything more than just putting more work in than others. Or maybe my legal writing professor and I just weren't on the same wavelength. Who knows, because other than those terrible grades, there's nothing that makes me believe I'm a bad writer, legal or otherwise.

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gobosox

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Re: Law Review Write Ons

Post by gobosox » Mon Sep 22, 2014 9:15 am

SilverE2 wrote:Oh, I got the lowest possible graded score in legal writing both semesters of 1L year. So I don't believe that success in the competition amounts to anything more than just putting more work in than others. Or maybe my legal writing professor and I just weren't on the same wavelength. Who knows, because other than those terrible grades, there's nothing that makes me believe I'm a bad writer, legal or otherwise.
Yeah that's kinda what I'm interested in. Do others have the same experience? Are these truly just brute strength after being drained during finals, or is it more of an overall understanding of the 1L year/legal writing class?

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A. Nony Mouse

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Re: Law Review Write Ons

Post by A. Nony Mouse » Mon Sep 22, 2014 9:24 am

gobosox wrote:
SilverE2 wrote:Oh, I got the lowest possible graded score in legal writing both semesters of 1L year. So I don't believe that success in the competition amounts to anything more than just putting more work in than others. Or maybe my legal writing professor and I just weren't on the same wavelength. Who knows, because other than those terrible grades, there's nothing that makes me believe I'm a bad writer, legal or otherwise.
Yeah that's kinda what I'm interested in. Do others have the same experience? Are these truly just brute strength after being drained during finals, or is it more of an overall understanding of the 1L year/legal writing class?
My experience (going through and then grading write-ons) is that it's mostly brute strength - willingness to grind through all the materials and actually put the work in to do a thorough job right after finals. Doing the work and following all the directions to the letter is a huge part of success. Also, at least at my school (and I think most, though not all, schools), for LR write-on you write a mini/pseudo law review article, not a brief or memo. So you're not really even trying to write the way you were taught to write in LRW.

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Re: Law Review Write Ons

Post by ZyzzBrah » Mon Sep 22, 2014 9:40 am

OP, first you're correct its going to very across schools

At my school it was a combination of class rank and score on the write on (you were graded on the content and the citations/structure with a rubric)

I ended up getting the highest scoring write on for my class--I just read prior LR articles written by students (particularly those who had gotten the highest score in previous years). Honestly, having graded write ons and writing the "best" one I can say, in my experience, the biggest issues were following instructions (students didnt follow page limits for instance)/making grammar/citation errors. In other words, students didn't really differentiate themselves based on substance.

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salix

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Re: Law Review Write Ons

Post by salix » Thu Sep 25, 2014 10:37 am

http://www.amazon.com/Making-Law-Review ... law+review

This was a very helpful little book. Read it in the weeks before your competition. It offers good tips on organizing your time and approach.

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Re: Law Review Write Ons

Post by Jloubriel26 » Fri Sep 26, 2014 11:13 am

salix wrote:http://www.amazon.com/Making-Law-Review ... law+review

This was a very helpful little book. Read it in the weeks before your competition. It offers good tips on organizing your time and approach.
I can attest that this book was golden for my preparation for the Write-On Competition. I got accepted into every Journal at my school. I would also recommend looking over the BlueBook at least 2-3 weeks prior to the competition. This may be difficult because in most schools the write-on is right after finals. I was lucky in that regard because as a Transfer I participated right before classes started in the Fall.

Hope this Helps

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Desert Fox

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Re: Law Review Write Ons

Post by Desert Fox » Fri Sep 26, 2014 12:03 pm

Writing onto law review is a waste of effort. It's not valuable because everyone knows you didn't have the grades for it.
Last edited by Desert Fox on Sat Jan 27, 2018 6:03 am, edited 1 time in total.

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ScottRiqui

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Re: Law Review Write Ons

Post by ScottRiqui » Fri Sep 26, 2014 12:07 pm

Desert Fox wrote:Writing onto law review is a waste of effort. It's not valuable because everyone knows you didn't have the grades for it.
Do employers necessarily know whether you wrote on or graded on? I don't know enough about the timeline to know whether the GPA you have when you're considered for grade-on is the same GPA the employers see at OCI.

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Desert Fox

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Re: Law Review Write Ons

Post by Desert Fox » Fri Sep 26, 2014 12:11 pm

ScottRiqui wrote:
Desert Fox wrote:Writing onto law review is a waste of effort. It's not valuable because everyone knows you didn't have the grades for it.
Do employers necessarily know whether you wrote on or graded on? I don't know enough about the timeline to know whether the GPA you have when you're considered for grade-on is the same GPA the employers see at OCI.
At 2L OCI, it's the same grades.

The only time it really helps is if you are on the fringes on "grade on" and people will just assume you graded on.
Last edited by Desert Fox on Sat Jan 27, 2018 6:03 am, edited 1 time in total.

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ScottRiqui

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Re: Law Review Write Ons

Post by ScottRiqui » Fri Sep 26, 2014 12:16 pm

Desert Fox wrote:
ScottRiqui wrote:
Desert Fox wrote:Writing onto law review is a waste of effort. It's not valuable because everyone knows you didn't have the grades for it.
Do employers necessarily know whether you wrote on or graded on? I don't know enough about the timeline to know whether the GPA you have when you're considered for grade-on is the same GPA the employers see at OCI.
At 2L OCI, it's the same grades.

The only time it really helps is if you are on the fringes on "grade on" and people will just assume you graded on.
Gotcha, thanks.

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Lexaholik

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Re: Law Review Write Ons

Post by Lexaholik » Wed Oct 29, 2014 5:03 pm

gobosox wrote:
SilverE2 wrote:Oh, I got the lowest possible graded score in legal writing both semesters of 1L year. So I don't believe that success in the competition amounts to anything more than just putting more work in than others. Or maybe my legal writing professor and I just weren't on the same wavelength. Who knows, because other than those terrible grades, there's nothing that makes me believe I'm a bad writer, legal or otherwise.
Yeah that's kinda what I'm interested in. Do others have the same experience? Are these truly just brute strength after being drained during finals, or is it more of an overall understanding of the 1L year/legal writing class?
I always struggled in my legal writing classes, but by sheer effort managed OK grades. I ended up writing on to LR. (So don't appraise your own legal writing ability based on your LRW grades)

And yes, it is largely brute strength and willpower to press on when others are tired (similar to much of law practice). But all that brute strength won't matter if you don't understand the fundamentals of how to read and interpret cases and statutes. Make sure you know how to do that.

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