Academic Legal Writing - Eugene Volokh [167]
iii. Don't worry about having your work look too derivative if everything is footnoted. Footnotes generally make the work look wellsupported, not unoriginal.
iv. When you use an idea or an argument that you borrow from a source—even if you didn't use any of the literal text from the source—give credit in a footnote.
v. Even when you come up with an idea on your own, and then see it in a source, give credit. The academic tradition is to credit people who came up with an argument before you did, even if you arrived at it independently. What's more, your readers won't know that you found the argument independently: They might just assume the worst, and think that you deliberately borrowed it, and refused to acknowledge the borrowing.
10. After the first draft is done, go over what you've highlighted in the sources
After you're done with the first draft, look again at the material you've highlighted in the sources. Much of that will be worth citing in the endnotes.
I found this particularly helpful when doing the competition myself. As I was writing the draft, I had to make many assertions that I knew were supported by the sources, but for which I didn't remember the right citation. So I just left the endnotes blank instead of wasting time tracking down each one separately. Then, after the first draft was done, I went over the highlighted material in the sources. This let me fill in nearly every blank footnote.
11. Ignore the mid-competition blues
About halfway through the competition, you're likely to panic, get depressed, or both. You're going slower than you thought you would. You don't like what you've written. You're not sure you can finish. You're sure that even if you finish, the editors will hate your paper.
Ignore this. Almost everyone goes through it. The other competitors are going through it, too.
The write-on is a genuinely difficult, high-pressure task, and it's hard to keep up your enthusiasm throughout it. But a large fraction of those who actually make it through the project, and turn in the paper, are indeed selected. Your chances are quite good. There's no cause for panic, and nothing to be gained by panicking. Just keep going.
12. When you have a moment, reread the instructions
Misreading the instructions is shockingly easy. When I did my anonymous write-on experiment, I read the instructions and saw that I was allowed to use 80 characters per line. Then, after I wrote the first draft at 80 characters per line, I reread the instructions, and saw that they really allowed only 70 characters per line. Whoops.
Resetting the format and then cutting the extra pages proved to be pretty easy. But if I hadn't noticed the error and therefore went nearly 15% over the space limit, I'd have been heavily penalized—or perhaps disqualified outright.
So when you have a chance, reread the instructions that came with the paper. Did you miss some important substantive detail? Are you following the formatting instructions to the letter? Are you positive about when the paper is due, and how you're supposed to submit it?
13. Edit
a. Edit, edit, edit
The key to clear, persuasive, and error-free writing is going over the draft again and again. Never ever ever plan on handing in a first draft, or even a second or third draft. Every time you proofread, you'll find more problems to correct. The more proofreading passes you can make, the better.
If you've planned your time well, you'll have a first draft done with plenty of time to edit it. But if you're running out of time, make sure that when you take a break from writing, you spend the break time editing what you've written. (You might want to avoid editing while you're actually writing—it will probably slow you down too much.) That way you'll be able to polish at least a good chunk of the article, and do it several times.
b. Cut
Whether or not you need to cut to save space, edit with an eye