Academic Legal Writing - Eugene Volokh [159]
Also, try to follow your editors' advice about how to manage your time. They've probably thought hard about how much time each section would require, and you should take advantage of their thinking.
3. Photocopy
Make five copies of the editing/bluebooking/proofreading test, if there is one, and two copies of the rest of the packet. You'll want to have a clean copy of the editing test onto which you can eventually make your final markings, plus several clean copies that you can use as rough drafts. (“[E]xtremely helpful” tip, one student responds. “Although I didn't use all the copies I made, it was extremely convenient to have several extra copies of the test during the competition.”)
4. Read the assignment and the source materials
Read the assignment and the source materials that you're given, and read them completely before you start writing. Read the sources (i) actively, and (ii) constantly thinking about how they're relevant to your problem.
a. As you read, highlight and mark the sources, and write on a separate notepad (or in a separate computer file) any thoughts that you have. Pay particularly close attention to quotes that seem to capture the key point of the source, or that seem especially important to the problem. You're going to be stressed, busy, and excited, which makes it easy to forget some of the ideas that come to your mind. Don't rely on your memory—write things down.
b. If you have voice recognition software on your computer, consider taking audio notes. This can be quicker and less tiring than writing notes, and can lead you to take more notes than you otherwise would.
c. As you read every source, and every section of each source, ask yourself: How is this relevant to my problem? How can it be used as an argument for or against some possible solutions? What similarities are there between this case and my fact pattern, and what differences? Constantly asking these questions can make it easier for you to come up with ideas that will be helpful to your paper.
If some section of a source doesn't seem relevant, though, don't just skip it. Still read it carefully, and see if you can find some connection that might not be obvious at first.
The readings will likely be a tough slog. During your first year, most of your readings were probably in casebooks; and while many casebooks have flaws, they at least tend to edit the material down, and tend to choose cases that are as readable and instructive as possible. Your packet of readings may have many entire sources, whether cases or law review articles, and they won't be easy to get through. Don't despair: Your competitors will likely find them as difficult and tedious as you will.
5. Choose a claim
Most law review write-ons require you to give your own solution to the problem you were posed. For instance, if the problem is “Does the Fourth Amendment allow laws that require people to submit their DNA to a nationwide database?,” you'll be expected to decide for yourself whether the answer is yes, no, or it depends. You'll also be expected to come up with the principle underlying this answer, for instance, “yes, because it's reasonable to have such a policy, if it applies to everyone equally, even in the absence of probable cause.” The answer coupled with the basic justification is what I call your “claim.” The law review generally chooses the problem so that the source materials are compatible with several possible answers.
This is probably different from what you've done before in your writing class. Most first-year writing assignments are objective memoranda, where you're supposed to ask yourself “What are courts likely to decide here?,” and persuasive briefs, where you're supposed to ask yourself “How do I argue for the position I'm assigned to argue?” The law review write-on typically requires you to ask “What should I suggest as the right result, and how should I defend my proposal?”
For an actual student Note, the claim has to be pretty ambitious: It has to be something genuinely