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Legal writing book = alien language

Posted: Sat Oct 30, 2010 9:32 pm
by beautyhide
Having decided to apply to law school with the score I got yesterday,
I went to the bookstore today to pick up some 0L books..
I bought A Civil Action, which I look forward to reading, but could not bring myself to
purchase Legal Writing in Plain English. Plain English is exactly what it wasn't to me..
I flipped through it and thought there is no way I can learn even a little bit of this stuff
before someone drills it into me. Is this normal??

Re: Legal writing book = alien language

Posted: Sat Oct 30, 2010 9:38 pm
by kalvano
What was your issue?

Re: Legal writing book = alien language

Posted: Sat Oct 30, 2010 9:40 pm
by MrPapagiorgio
beautyhide wrote:Having decided to apply to law school with the score I got yesterday,
I went to the bookstore today to pick up some 0L books..
I bought A Civil Action, which I look forward to reading, but could not bring myself to
purchase Legal Writing in Plain English. Plain English is exactly what it wasn't to me..
I flipped through it and thought there is no way I can learn even a little bit of this stuff
before someone drills it into me. Is this normal??
My two cents: don't read the books until you need to. The fact that you "flipped through it" indicates that you have not had ample time to consider the difficulty of the material.

As an example--flip through a calculus book. You will feel lost by the various formulae and arbitrary symbols you have never seen. But as you learn the requisite material, the latter pages won't seem so foreign.

Re: Legal writing book = alien language

Posted: Sat Oct 30, 2010 10:17 pm
by beautyhide
Understood. Thanks for the feedback :)

MrPapagiorgio wrote:
beautyhide wrote:Having decided to apply to law school with the score I got yesterday,
I went to the bookstore today to pick up some 0L books..
I bought A Civil Action, which I look forward to reading, but could not bring myself to
purchase Legal Writing in Plain English. Plain English is exactly what it wasn't to me..
I flipped through it and thought there is no way I can learn even a little bit of this stuff
before someone drills it into me. Is this normal??
My two cents: don't read the books until you need to. The fact that you "flipped through it" indicates that you have not had ample time to consider the difficulty of the material.

As an example--flip through a calculus book. You will feel lost by the various formulae and arbitrary symbols you have never seen. But as you learn the requisite material, the latter pages won't seem so foreign.