write good law essay

write good law essay

Writing an Effective Law Essay

1. Introduction

A certain style of writing known as IRAC (or ILAC as it is sometimes known) may be used and this may take some getting used to. It is commonly used for problem-based questions (or questions that have more than one issue), and it will take you a long way to getting the mark you want. IRAC has a four-step process in which you need to identify the Issue and relevant law, present the Rule, Analyze the facts, and make a Conclusion. (Don’t worry if you can’t remember all of these just yet, it will become easier with time) This style is particularly popular in Australia and New Zealand; however, it is a worthwhile exercise to try it, even if it is not your preferred style of writing, for it has consistent logical progression and that makes for an easy and concise way of getting our point across to the reader. Make sure you conclude your essay with something along the lines of “In conclusion, this essay has discussed issue X. The main areas of contention were a, b, and c, and it was found that there is a likely outcome of….” This is the sort of tail that your professor is looking for, and it wraps it up nicely.

This essay addresses the task of writing an effective law essay. It gives a brief definition of what an essay is and what are the different types of an essay. After this, it will explore the main ways of preparing for and writing your essay, namely by providing a writing sample.

2. Understanding the Essay Question

Now go and gather information on your essay topic with a view to trying to prove your hypothesis true!

Now formulate a starting hypothesis to answer the question. Don’t worry about changing this at a later stage if you notice you were wrong! This is perfectly normal. This is a crucial stage – if you get this part right, your essay will almost write itself, the essay will be based on trying to prove your hypothesis.

Once you are clear on what the question is asking, at this stage you should brainstorm ideas which are relevant to the set question and will provide you with enough material to argue your point. Consider what you already know about the subject and how will the essay question will give you? What facts and explanations will you search for to learn more about this subject?

Often modules will have changed their essay titles before releasing them to students. This is because they have realized that the previous question had been difficult to answer with a specific argument as it was too general. Therefore, if you find yourself questioning the meaning of the essay question, it may be that the question has no easy answer in the first place, and the best course of action may be to ask the lecturer to explain what they are expecting from you.

Your argument is what you are trying to convince the reader to think or do. In essence, your essay is an attempt to persuade someone to your point of view on a subject. So being aware of the essay question is crucial!

Understanding the meaning of the source is not as straightforward as it may seem. Many students (and indeed the majority of those marking essays) are unaware of what they are trying to achieve when answering an essay question. Therefore, the first step in essay writing is to analyze the essay question and understand what it is you are being asked to do. This will help you to structure and sustain a compelling argument.

When you embark on the legal essay writing journey, the written word is only the medium through which you are trying to persuade the reader – your understanding of the meaning of the source is the foundation of your argument and must be substantial, clear, and developed. Anything less and you will find that you don’t have enough material to write a convincing essay.

3. Conducting Thorough Research

To ascertain which sources will make for efficient research on the aforementioned levels, one will have to make a critical choice on whether to access materials online or use the library. Though this manual would advise online research as it convenes many useful resources and saves considerable effort, there is a strong likelihood that the online quest ends up in a zap of electricity and a sudden realization half an hour later that you have been reading the news. Now regardless of the medium, the process of sifting through the chaff to find the wheat takes place at various levels of efficacy. It is a thumb rule that the longer and more complex a piece of writing, the more likely it is to be of academic quality. And this is where only selection of material can turn into something more, as you use one source to find another, as you become immersed in a subject you had no prior interest in, so that at the end of the day you have to ponder whether you are still studying law. At times like these, it is advisable to carry a pocket mirror and ask ‘am I revising for tomorrow’s lecture?’ As despite the trips into different areas of law, be they relevant or irrelevant, your happy detours often lead you to say that you have never regretted reading that particular piece of law. And that is the feeling we want to emulate when we are researching for an essay.

The last key case for legal research arises from the fact that at every level of academia, people want to know something new. Now, in a body of twelve-foot-high statute books, there is unlikely to be any new law. Thus at the lowest level, people write essays that ask how a particular statute or case applies to a particular context. Now the excellence of these essays depends on the degree to which the writer has convinced the reader that he or she has actually discovered something new. Often this element of ‘newness’ comes across as a shot in the dark where the writer is speculating as to what the law should be, but it is a valuable and often misunderstood exercise in legal policy and reasoning. So to satisfy the ‘newness’ requirement, one will often have to look through various sources to discover how little attention a particular topic has received.

When the time comes to embark on research, a student should see this activity as a chance to develop mastery in a particular area of law. Too often, students run into trouble by misunderstanding the nature of legal research. Without minimizing the importance of reading cases and statutes, one has to appreciate that doing well with the primary sources essentially involves an exercise in interpretation. So if one’s understanding of a legal topic is still shaky, piling through primary sources is probably not the best way to start. In this situation, one is likely to misread cases and waste valuable time looking up definitions to legal words found in statutes. More effective is to achieve an understanding of the topic by using a reputable secondary source. Supplement the understanding gleaned from this source by taking a second (and this time more informed) look at the primary sources. At this point, one can gauge the quality of one’s understanding by discussing the topic with people who have at least an equivalent understanding.

4. Structuring Your Essay

This content will be guided by the questions set in the mandatory section as outlined in the table of contents above. Organization structure, or style an “approach” to the problem is relatively easy to design, e.g. a comparison between two legislative programs, a Case and Commentary note, or a problem/question question answer essay. After that style may require amendment but the basic plan is a good basis to start. Your knowledge and understanding of key concepts in the topics or questions should be addressed very clearly at this stage. Often brainstorming a topic can be the most difficult part of the process and many students are unsure and what they are expected to understand or know. This is especially important (Chadwick, 1999, pg 128). Step two of the IRAC might be the best approach to this problem, as a very general roadmap for answering the question is needed. With the Issue being just what it is that you have to know or understand about the topic, e.g. The meaning of vicarious liability. Then the Rule, here would just be a list of what specific things have to be learnt about each of the different causation, acts, and defences. This will give you a clear understanding of exactly what the problem is asking and what you need to know to answer it. Then by comparing what you have to know for the question with what you already know about the topic, will tell you what learning you need to do, moving to the major step of writing a structured plan. This step can be so crucial in an essay’s success that it may need its own IRAC!

5. Crafting a Strong Conclusion

Your conclusion presents an opportunity for you to explain to the reader the ‘So what?’ of your essay. What have they learned over the course of it? This is a good way to reinforce the importance of the research you have done and the specific arguments that you have made. Bear in mind the relevance of your arguments to the question that you have been asked. Whilst it’s easy to get caught up in your own argument within an essay, you should ensure that each point you make is relevant to the question and is finally accounted for in the conclusion. A good way to show the importance of your argument is to provide a new insight or a novel idea which you have not previously stated. This is a good way to bring the readers favour onto your side and bonus points are always advantageous. Always stick strictly to the word limit given when writing your conclusion – it’s your worst nightmare to realise you’re going over your target once you’ve finished writing.

When taking law examinations, you will have no doubt spent time working out the structure of your answer in detail. The aim of this guide is to give you a way of using that knowledge to translate your preparation into a (hopefully) convincing argument. This is a guide on how to write a law essay. A key skill when planning for your exams, essay writing is something you will do throughout your studies at degree level, so it’s important to get these basics right. As a start, it’s useful to remind yourself of the things a law essay is trying to achieve. This might be all well and good if the topic so far is to write an essay at the bar level. Let’s consider the same question for an undergraduate and masters level assignments.