a2 THINGS I WISH I KNEW AT LAW SCHOOL [EPISODE 1] How to write a legal essay

THINGS I WISH I KNEW AT LAW SCHOOL [EPISODE 1]: How to write a
legal essay
hi I'm Claire and this video is my application for the position of Laurie's Nets
first-ever vlogger so I will start with just a brief introduction about myself I
graduated with a law degree from the University of Kent in 2012 initially
with the idea of growing straight into my LPC but instead decided to take
some time out to get a bit of life experience through working so I've been
employed both as a legal secretary and as a paralegal and I've now
decided that now's the time to go back into studying to progress my career
and that's what I'll be doing this September at BPPV law school so I hope
that you'll join me as I prepare for my postgraduate studies by reflecting on
my past experience as an undergraduate on the LLB which brings me onto
the subject of today's video and something which I hope will be part of a
longer series the things I wish I knew at law school how to survive the mini
essays of the LLB when I left uni and I had to clear out I could not part with
these because if you would have literally felt like I would be throwing my
hard work away throughout my degree ​law paper​ writing was definitely my
strengths as opposed to exams where the stress and time limits often got
the better of me most of these got first so if you aren't affectionate like me
who always wants to top grades and I'm going to give some of my tips and
advice on how to get them and you can clip them like trophies I have
chosen this one as an example which is a public law essay on human
rights that I wrote back in 2010 and this achieved 75 and this was the
feedback I got this is an excellent essay it has good research it is clearly
written and it advances elusive argument and so I will be using this paper
to run through some of the stages you need to take in completing your
assistances the very first thing you should do when you have your essay
question is to read it seriously write it down read it out loud lick it no don't
look it but you get what I mean just make sure that you have really taken
the time to understand and what the question is asking you to do because
there is no point in rushing into writing answer if you've misunderstood the
question so what I always like to do was to rewrite the question on a
separate piece of paper and highlight all of the key words so is it asking
you to critique a law explain a case or to discuss a quote and are there
different parts of the question that you need to consider if so break the
question up and use that to determine the structure of your essay attention
to detail is a very important skill involved in the work of a lawyer so you
need to make sure that you miss absolute nothing in your answer so the
essay question I've chosen is as follows and human rights can be infringed
if it is according to law and deemed necessary in a Democratic Society this
manifests in modern tension between the individual and the state it also
demonstrates the limits of human rights as protection against
majoritarianism and other excesses of the state disgust this is suck sort of
like an opinion and it says that there are two is two consequences of that
so you have to take each of them in turn and basically discuss the valise
with the validity of it and if you agree with it or not the next stage is vital
because as well as your writing skills you will also be examined on the
quality of your legal research so I'm not going to go into this in detail
because it is a large topic and my focus is mainly on the essay writing but it
is a major skill again inherent in the work of a lawyer and your law school
will teach you how to get the most out of your legal library as well as legal
online databases such as Westlaw and Lexi's Nexis so once you have
completed your research you may have a vague idea of where you want
your essay to go so now what you need to do is plan your answer so that
you can clarify and organize your thoughts and this will also result in a
well-written and clear essay your essay will always need an introduction
and a conclusion but what you need to plan is what sort of go into the main
body the meat of the essay and here is also where you can figure out
where you want your research to go so for example if the essay is asking
you whether you agree or disagree with a judge's reasoning in a certain
case you can structure your essay in paragraphs and sections for and
against and then organize which evidence you're going to use where so
congratulations now you are ready to get this essay written which means
starting at the beginning with the introduction right wrong the introduction
should be the very last thing that you write because how are you going to
effectively introduce something which you have not yet written so you start
with the main body of your essay working from your plan in your research
and you then reach your conclusion so good conclusions have two vital
ingredients first your conclusion is where you answer the question so make
sure you work all the arguments in your essay and say what you think no
fence sitting aloud the next thing you need to make sure you do is explain
why you've reached the position that you have if I'm assuming that you've
all taken your law degrees because you want to be lawyers now is the time
to really prove that you have those skills so taking into account all of the
arguments in your essay why is the position you've taken the only logical
one why is it the best one and why are all the other arguments
unconvincing and don't forget to back it up with some killer evidence for a
well reasoned and persuasive answer it is only when your essays
essentially answered that you go back to the beginning and introduce the
reader to your work break up the question as you did in your plan to show
your interpretation what you needed to do and summarize how you got
there be a good host by guiding your reader through your answer and the
clearer you make it and the easier you make it for your reader to
understand your reasoning the more marks they will be willing to part with
so for my introduction for this essay this is what I wrote it is pointed out that
we've draw from human right can occur if it is satisfied that is according to
law and necessary in a Democratic Society furthermore this is said to have
two consequences which are links it causes tension between the individual
and the state and it also demonstrates how human rights are limited as
protection against majoritarianism and other exists of the state as my task
is to discuss this this essay will break it up and go through each part
carefully exploring the validity of the one-sided suggestion that we've draw
from human rights is unjustified so I've interpreted the whole essay
question and the whole quote and I've said what I'm going to do and how
I'm going to do it so you've now completed your essay and I know you may
be mentally and/or physically exhausted at this point but now what you
really need to do is go through and check your work which means not only
checking that your analysis is nice and tidy by making sure that there are
no gaps in your answer no questions unanswered and no sources on
reference but also making sure that there are no silly grammar or spelling
mistakes so I think there is one spelling mistake that every law student
fred's making and is one I made in this essay which when unnoticed by
both myself and hopefully the marker I had a really tough time with this
essay because I found it really difficult public law is just one of those really
difficult modules and if you do well you're considered quite the smartypants
so when I got back 75 I was not only thrilled but also in disbelief so I had to
read it again through the markers eyes and it was only when I read through
it that I saw this I'll hold it up I was the student who spelt the word public
wrong in me one way that you do not want to miss spell it so don't be that
student make sure that you spell check because clearly your computer's
spell checker will let you down it won't pick up every mistake and once
you've had the draw law essay or essays into the law school that is when
you get your friends your roommates your boyfriend your girlfriend or
elderly next-door neighbor and go out relax and celebrate and you can look
forward to the day when you can go back to the law school to pick up your
paper and see a bright shiny first in the front and when you do you can
think mean chocolate okay so that's it from me I really hope our bit scared
or bored anyone and don't worry if you find it really difficult at first because
essay writing is definitely a skill that you build with each assignment and if
you don't do as well as you hoped the most important thing to do is use that
feedback that you get to improve the next one and if you don't understand it
you can always make an appointment with your teacher to go through it
with you so that it's clearer and you can discuss on how you can improve
so if you have any comments questions or anything to add please make
sure you leave me a comment below and I'll see you soon by staying in on
a Saturday night talking to myself about essays there's nothing weird about
this at all