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Any general tips for doing well in your legal writing class? My class just got our first memos back and while I fell within the top range, my score was low enough where a similar score on the final memo could lead to an unsatisfactory grade. I have some individual feedback from my professor, but anything more general would be helpful also.

Go to a school where it isn't graded.


But seriously, I think you want to focus your writing on what your prof wants so I don't know how helpful we can be.

Spend more time editing than writing because that's where I made some of the super fine tweaking I needed to do in order to do a point or two better than someone who just wrote and edited two times. I also would make sure you give yourself 24 hours between your writing and editing so you have fresh eyes.

NotHermione wrote:Any general tips for doing well in your legal writing class? My class just got our first memos back and while I fell within the top range, my score was low enough where a similar score on the final memo could lead to an unsatisfactory grade. I have some individual feedback from my professor, but anything more general would be helpful also.

If you fell within the top range you're fine. Stop being neurotic. Just fix what your teacher pointed out for you to do.

NotHermione wrote:Any general tips for doing well in your legal writing class? My class just got our first memos back and while I fell within the top range, my score was low enough where a similar score on the final memo could lead to an unsatisfactory grade. I have some individual feedback from my professor, but anything more general would be helpful also.

General information probably wouldn't help you at this point, especially if you're already in the top range. If you have individual feedback from the professor, that's worth far more than anything we can tell you.

Legal writing professors (rightly or wrongly) believe they know what good writing is. Whatever that turns out to be, you should write like that. It'll also be a good way to write memos for senior lawyers later on in your career.