Law is a profession of words.
David Mellinkoff[1]
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tudying law is a great experience. Writing essays in law occupies
much of the four years of study for a law degree. Understanding the rules of
writing law essays can help students score excellent grades in their
assessment. Essay writing is a design with its own rules of construction.
Students exposed to these rules of construction perform much better than those
who are turned off with the idea of writing essays. Writing essays in law is
the foundation of well- organized thoughts, discussions, arguments, and ideas
that persuade a reader to buy your perspective. Lecturers in law studies expect
students to write excellent essays that are researched, structured, and argued
in clear written expressions with no language problems.
A good essay is the result of weaving words
together in a unique design that appeals to the aesthetics of the reader. Essay
writing is weaving with words to get the right design or pattern that appeals
to the reader. Essay writing weaves words to form a wonderful text that fetches
an excellent result. In this book the discussion is on weaving law words in a
design that is readable, persuasive, and exposes an insight into the complex
world of law in society.
Included in this book are sample of essays I
have written in law courses I have studied at the University of Papua New
Guinea. As a matured student with professional experience in writing and teaching
I had no difficulties in writing law essays. I share theses essays as model
essays written over time in various courses. These essays in this book appear without
the comments and assessment reports from the lecturers of the courses in which
these essays were first submitted. These essays have flaws and the usual
shortfall in law arguments, which I accept full responsibility. The essays are sample
essays that a student can write in law courses.
To appreciate this book the reader is invited
to see the motivation I had in writing a book on essay writing in law. First
motivation to write this book is to share my knowledge of organized thoughts in
a specific discipline. Law is a subject that requires very sustained learning
before one can understand the complexities of law. I recognized that the
decision to study law has opened the door into a world only a few people
trained in the discipline know. For me knowing law has added a lot of value in
my life.
Second motivation is to address the lack of
appropriate skills that students have in writing essays. Students are expected
to write essays in almost all courses they study during their four years of
study. The difficulties students have in writing essays have caused a lot of
students to score below the average mark; sometimes even lower than the pass
mark. The difficulties with writing good essays are compounded with poor
language constructions, poor understanding of the mechanics of writing,
reference and citation styles, and not knowing the structures and elements of
style used in the discipline.
Third, my essays are published as model
essays in law. I retain the intellectual property rights to these essays, as
they are original in research and content. I retain the rights to use them in
whatever form I deem useful for the purposes of disseminating the ideas generated
in the study of law.
The inspiration for this book comes from my
experience of studying law. Excellent writing in law leads to achieving higher
grades in law studies. Writing great essays involves knowledge of the subject,
research, and writing skills. Intellectual knowledge is in abundance, but
research and writing skills are in short supply to a student of law. The
problem with research and writing skills are common to all students. Students
in all disciplines have similar problems with written expressions and use of
specific forms of writing to communicate their knowledge of a subject.
I share some of my knowledge of research and
writing skills to bridge that gap between poor research and writing skills and
successful excellent research papers. These skills are learnt from taking
courses in legal research and writing skills, writing, editing, and publishing,
and from reading excellent books on legal research and writing.[2] Writing
better essays includes reading the materials others have written about similar
topic or subjects. Writing great essays involves using the knowledge, skills,
and styles of others.
Writing is a skill that is already present in
a writer. Drawing from that based a writer can master the skills of writing
through constant practices and exercise. Good writing requires that a writer is
consistent, knowledgeable, and response to the need for clear written
expressions and language use.
READING A DISAPPEARING ACT
Understanding law requires both the act of reading and writing.
Without reading the literature on a particular area of law students can have
difficulties in contextual understanding of legal reasoning. Reading is an
important tool for students of law. Reading is key to the understanding of a
course that a student is studying. Reading law texts are critical part of the
study of law. “Law school involves a lot of readings, reading of laws which are
referred to as primary materials and other persuasive material which is
referred to as secondary materials” (Stanley 2010: 1). Lecturers prescribe a lot
of reading materials such as relevant literature on the course, cases, and laws
on the subject. The amount of materials a student in law has to read is beyond
the average student’s reading list: “Law courses often contain larger quantity
of materials than courses in other disciplines…these materials may contain up
to one hundred pages which you are expected to read” (Stanley 2010: 1).
The next important skill that a student of
law needs is writing. It is important for a student to write out what he or she
reads. Writing essays in a course includes presenting concrete evidence of
knowledge acquired through reading to written form. Students who write well
command a deeper understanding of what they read and learn during the course.
Writing well requires a student to present the ideas in a required format,
structure, and written expressions. Writing a law essay requires a student to
articulate in a language that is simple, clear, flawless, and persuasive. A
good essay is an important illustration of the depth of understanding that a
student has achieved: “A competent approach to legal research skills, argument
construction and legal writing will allow you to produce work that demonstrates
your understanding of an area” (Hanson 2010: 202). Essays that fetch high
grades from lecturers reflect such elements: “If you can synthesize your skills
and create argument rationally on the basis of existing theory, cases,
statutes, and practice you should generate good results in the distinction
category. Students who try to be creative but fail to produce any plausible
evidence for their argument construct weak pieces of work that result in low
grades” (Hanson 2010: 202).
Writing excellent essays in law is beyond storytelling.
Writing excellent law essays is about constructing arguments that address the
facts, issues, and relevant laws within a fixed structure of argument: “Good
writing skills are an essential component of successful study. Your level of
competency in this area will also be an important factor in the grades you
achieve for assessed written work,” according to Sharon Hanson (2010: 11).
Students are expected develop competency in note taking, short summaries, and
make references to relevant reading materials. Excellent essays are the result
of competent writing skills: “You need to demonstrate understanding by careful
application, interpretation, prediction and creativity” (Hanson 2010: 202). The
skills of writing alone are not enough to get the results a student wants.
A student needs to follow convention of good
writing structure and elements of good writing practice. Advice from experts of
writing is worth taking on board: “Simply summarizing a string of articles,
texts and cases without presenting a serious argument supported by evidence
will not attract a good mark for an essay or a problem question. However, if
your summaries are well prepared, they can provide a good basis for argument
construction as part of your response” (Hanson 2010: 202).
[1] David
Mellinkoff, The Language of Law,
Boston, Little, Brown & Co., 1963: vi.
[2] To assist me in writing
this book I relied on a number of books: Roberta H. Markham, Peter T. Markham,
and Marie L. Waddell, 10 Steps in Writing
the Research Paper, 4th edition. New York: Barron’s Educational
Series, Inc., Claire Macken, Law Student
Survival Guide: 9 Steps to Law Study Success. 2nd ed. New South
Wales: Thomson Reuters, 2010; Lynn Bahrych and Marjorie Dick Rombauer, Legal Writing. St Paul, MN: West A
Thomson Business, 2003; Sharon Hanson, Legal
Method: Skills and Reasoning. 3rd edition. London and New York:
Routledge-Cavendish, 2010.
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