Lots of law students struggle with their Legal Research and Writing class, for a variety of reasons. One, it tends to be very time consuming and can take over your life if you let it. Two, it’s hard to know how to get started, or if you’re really finished. Three, legal writing demands a different way of thinking and writing, and that takes some time and effort to get used to.
Read on for ideas about how to approach your Legal Research and Writing class, some must-know legal writing basics, and more advanced content on using different legal research options and on the specifics of constructing legal arguments.
Best of luck!
Legal Writing Basics
- Should Your Law School Essay Be Wearing Sweatpants or a Suit? Students sometimes tell us that their professor said typos don’t matter on an exam. Is that an excuse to ignore the most basic rules of grammar and spelling, and write like a slob? Definitely not!
- Why Legal Citations Are Important and Should Not Be Ignored In this post we share with you why citations are important and how you should approach your assignment to make sure that citations don’t get ignored (as this often leads to easy missed points come grading time).
- Five Tips for a Great Legal Writing Assignment Many first-year students are struggling with their legal writing assignments. As you continue to work on developing your legal writing skills, here are some tips to keep in mind.
- Is Your Open Memo Research Finished? You’ve been researching your open memo, experiencing frustration, relief, and maybe even exhilaration along the way. But now you’re feeling fatigue and an unsettling sense that you’re not sure whether you’re done. What to do?
- How to Get Answers From the Bluebook Need some help navigating the Bluebook. Get tips here.
- The Elusive Mini-IRAC: A Key to Law School Exam Success IRAC, the notorious structural underpinning of many a law school final exam is a relatively straightforward concept. But how do you handle an exam or practice essay when it isn’t that simple? The Mini-IRAC is the key.
- 7 Tips to Improve Your Legal Writing Let's face it. Legal writing is as hard as it is important. Here are some simple tips that will help you strengthen your written work product and impress your professors.
- The Art of the Case Name (and 8 You Should Know) When you start law school, you may be surprised how often case names are used not only as shorthand for their holdings, but also as terms of art that represent fundamental legal concepts. Read this post if you want to get a jump start on learning some of the most important ones.
- First-Hand Guide to 1L Courses -- Legal Research & Writing It's a good idea to go into your first year courses with a general understanding of what you should expect from them. Click here to learn a bit about Legal Research and Writing!
- Ahead of the Curve: From Undergrad to Law School -- Making the Transition, Part Two One of the most challenging parts of moving from an "undergrad" to a "law school" mindset is adapting your writing style. Here are some things to consider as you start your 1L year.
- 5 Tips for Citing Web-Based Sources in Legal Writing Did you know that the Bluebook has a way to cite social media? With web-based resources growing in popularity and respectability, it's important to know how (and when!) to cite to these sources.
- The Art of Rule Synthesis Now you’re in law school and there are a whole bunch of rules you have to memorize that may have nothing to do with how you live your life. But you have to know these rules cold so they can come to you at the right moment during a law school exam. But wait, now you’re told there is a whole new category of rules. These are rules you have to create yourself in your legal writing class. This requires something called “synthesis.” So, what exactly does that mean?
- Five Secrets of Effective Legal Writing Legal writing can inform, persuade, argue, intimidate, notify, and serve all kinds of other functions. Fortunately, the mechanics of legal writing are mostly the same regardless of what kind of document you are producing. Here are a few tips to help all of your legal writing stand out.
- Six Legal Writing Tips to Help You Stand Out This Summer Here are six legal writing tips to help you prepare and truly stand out in an unusual summer experience.
- Three Cs of Legal Writing...And One T The Three Cs of all good writing are clarity, concision, and coherence. And for legal writing, especially for law school writing, you have only to add one T to that list: Technical writing.
- Five Things Professional Readers Expect from Legal Writers This post identifies 5 qualities considered by busy PR’s when holistically assessing or grading the quality of a written legal instrument.
- Podcast Episode 11: Legal Writing 101 What is it about the term Legal Writing that makes law students cringe? In this episode we talk about what makes legal writing so difficult, and how you can improve your writing skills, and more!
- Podcast Episode 68: Top 10 Legal Research and Writing Disasters to Avoid Almost every 1L in the country will take some sort of legal research and writing class. Today, we’re discussing the top ten LRW disasters we see again and again, so you can avoid them!
- Podcast Episode 156: Our Top 10 Academic Podcast Episodes Today, we’re doing a recap of our top 10 academic episodes, plus a few bonus ones. These aren’t necessarily the most popular episodes, but the ones we think are the most useful!
How to Approach Your Legal Research and Writing Class
- The Link Between Legal Writing and Final Exams What's the difference between legal writing for your LRW class and writing on your final exams? Find out more about the what's the same, and what's different.
- Approaching Your Legal Writing Assignment Like a Jazz Solo Jazz standards and legal writing are really quite similar. They’re both vehicles for expression that channel creativity into a few common forms.
- Be Ready to Throw Your Writing Style Out the Window in Law School It doesn't matter if you think you're a great writer going into law school. Legal writing has its own style. What matters is that you learn how to do it the right way (or at least the way the professor wants it)!
- Law School Toolbox Experts Share: Tips for Conquering Legal Writing Are you stressed out about taking Legal Writing? We have all been there! The Law School Toolbox experts share their tips for conquering Legal Writing.
- Legal Writing Tip: Imagine You’re Talking to Your Grandma The first few times you try to write a legal memo, it’s going to be a little awkward. Don’t worry, that’s normal. While you may be trying to sound like a super smart lawyer, here’s another idea: imagine the client is your grandmother.
- Four Legal Writing Tips from the Theatre Legal writers can learn a lot from writing for the theatre. Don’t believe me? Watch a good litigator in court.
- Embrace the Difference of Legal Writing One of the biggest transitions you'll make as a 1L is writing like a lawyer. Here's why legal writing is different from what you've done before.
- Could You Explain This Legal Concept to a 5-Year-Old? The next time you encounter a super-confusing legal topic, ask yourself one question: could I explain this concept to a reasonably intelligent 5-year-old? If the answer’s no, it’s time to simplify! Here's how.
- Keep the Train on the Tracks: Independent Writing and Research in Law School There are lots of reasons independent research and writing can be great for a law student, but it's important to make sure you're staying focused and on schedule. We're offering some ideas for doing your best with independent work.
- Podcast Episode 60: 5 Tips for Surviving the First Month of Law School Today, we’re talking about 5 things to focus on academically in the first month of law school, to set yourself up for success later on. If you’re just starting law school, this episode is for you!
Legal Research Resources and How to Use Them
- Your First Guide to Secondary Sources Researching and legal writing are two central tasks that attorneys perform frequently. There are three major legal databases: LexisNexis, Westlaw, and Bloomberg. This guide will focus on a great first step to research: secondary sources.
- What Can Your Law Library Offer You? If you detest studying in the library at your law school, don’t do it! It’s not required to do well on your exams. That said, though, did you know that law libraries often house some fantastic resources that many law students never take advantage of? If you’re just starting out exploring your law library, or want to get more out of navigating the library you know and love, here are some resources to check out.
- Dos and Don'ts for Using Sample Documents in Legal Writing What you should and shouldn't do when you are using sample documents in legal writing.
- 15 Latin Legal Terms Every 1L Should Know Along with mastering complicated legal concepts, enduring the Socratic method, learning to outline, and tackling legal writing, law school forces you to learn an entirely new vocabulary. Learning the language of the law is a real hurdle that cannot be overlooked just because it is not covered on the syllabus. This post will give you 15 Latin legal terms frequently encountered, but rarely translated or discussed. Without further ado –
- A Law Student's Perspective: LexisNexis Tips LexisNexis is one of the three major legal databases (others: Westlaw and Bloomberg) which you will become familiar with throughout your legal career. Each person has their own preference on what database they will use. Do not feel obligated to choose one that someone else suggests. Nevertheless, these are the cool things Lexis has to offer which may be useful!
- "Good Law" vs "Bad Law" Explained There are plenty of landmines in law school legal writing, but whether you are citing “good law” is a fundamental step of legal analysis that will be crucial to your success in law school and beyond. This post won’t cover every possible scenario, but hopefully it will provide a strategy for thinking through your good law/bad law analysis and make that Shepard’s report just a little less daunting.
- Bluebook Oddities: 10 Unlikely Citations Love it or hate it, The Bluebook is an unavoidable fixture of the law school experience. No matter how fluent you become in The Bluebook, it seems to always be full of surprises. Here is a list of some of our favorite citations you never knew you could find in the deep recesses of your Bluebook.
- Law Librarians Explained: Everything a 1L Should Know Many 1Ls think of the law library as simply a place to study. If that's you, you're overlooking one of the most important resources in law school: the law librarian. Read on to learn more!
- Dealing with Dicta: 10 Questions Asked and Answered Whether researching case law or reading an assigned case, understanding and identifying dicta in a judicial opinion is a must. You probably know that you can’t rely on dicta as binding precedent in a future case, but what is it and how can you be sure to recognize it? If the concept of dicta seems complicated, it is. Here are ten frequently asked questions and answers to help you to successfully deal with dicta.
Different Approaches to Constructing Legal Arguments
- If X, Y, and Z, then A: Legal Analysis is Simple Professor Joel Trachtman who teaches International Law at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, shares some tips on conquering legal analysis.
- A Formula for Rule Analysis Success Law school gives you formulas like IRAC to help you through the process of learning legal analysis and writing. In a recent post, we shared with you a formula for the “R” section of IRAC that was developed by Professor Hollee S. Temple of the West Virginia College of Law. Now, let’s take a look at Professor Temple’s formula for the “A” section of IRAC.
- How and Why: Deepening Your Legal Reasoning Melissa L. Greipp, Associate Professor of Legal Writing at Marquette Law School, talks about how to deepen your legal reasoning by using two simple words: how and why.
- How to Construct a Policy Argument Policy arguments make many law students uncomfortable. You may panic when you’re expected to argue policy in an exam answer or legal writing assignment. Why is this, and how can you overcome it?
- From Objective to Persuasive Writing, Part 1: Law The classic LRW curriculum introduces objective (or predictive) writing, in the form of an office memorandum, in the fall, then switches to persuasive writing, typically an appellate brief (less often, a trial brief) in the spring. Many students struggle with this transition, feeling as if they’ve barely mastered one approach before being asked to change gears.
- From Objective to Persuasive Writing, Part 2: Facts We’ve recently discussed the shift from objective to persuasive writing, focusing on drafting persuasive legal arguments. Your approach to the facts will change from objective to persuasive as well.
- Podcast Episode 84: Using Rules Effectively in Legal Writing (With Guest Jason Jones) Today, we’re talking with Law School Toolbox tutor (and former law professor) Jason Jones about a very important aspect of law school exam success – using legal rules.