Academic Legal Writing - Eugene Volokh [171]
J. The Personal Statement
Some law reviews ask you to write a personal statement, and consider it as a factor in deciding whom to let on. A few tips for writing one.
1. Write well and proofread carefully
The personal statement is part of your competition packet. You will be graded on it. Even if there's no official procedure by which errors in the personal statement are counted together with errors in the other material, they'll still count against you indirectly: The point of the personal statement is to make people like you—and law review editors don't like people who can't write, or who don't take the time to make their writing look good.
So proofread the statement carefully. Look for all the problems you look for in your academic writing:
a. Grammatical errors.
b. Spelling errors.
c. Punctuation and capitalization errors.
d. Usage or word choice errors.
e. Unnecessary redundancy.
f. Unnecessarily complex words, sentences, or paragraphs.
g. Pomposity.
2. Pay attention to the instructions
As with all the other parts of your competition, pay attention to the instructions. If you're asked to stress why you want to be on the law review, explain that. If you're asked to describe your ambitions as a lawyer, explain that.
The instructions probably won't require you to limit yourself only to one topic, so feel free to include other items. But do make sure that you focus on what the instructions tell you to focus on.
3. Make yourself sound interesting, but politically unthreatening
In a perfect world, everyone would be tolerant of all political views. In our world, even people who are trying hard to avoid political bias tend to prefer those with whom they agree, or at least with whom they don't strongly disagree.
Avoid dwelling on especially controversial groups to which you belong. Avoid explaining your most ideological ambitions or experiences. Don't make yourself seem completely bland, but don't make yourself seem too spicy, either.
4. If you're applying to a specialty journal, stress your interest or experience in the specialty
Some specialty journals are looking for people who are particularly enthusiastic about the specialty, rather than just random students who want journal experience to put on their resume. So if you're applying to the specialty journal, stress your interest or experience in the specialty.
Naturally, be honest; and if you're writing personal statements for several journals, don't say inconsistent things in those statements. But honestly explain why you find the field interesting—if you're applying to the specialty journal, you probably find at least something interesting about the field. And honestly explain what things in your past, both before law school and during, would make you a particular good staffer for this particular journal.
XXVI. ACADEMIC ETHICS
Academic ethics sounds like a dreary topic, and instruction in academic ethics risks sounding preachy. Plus why should you need to read about the rules, if you're an ethical person already?
But complying with the ethical rules is important pragmatically, and not just ethically: You certainly don't want people to even suspect that you've behaved improperly. And the rules are sometimes not entirely intuitive—even honest people may inadvertently violate the rules unless they've focused on them. Reading a quick summary of the ethical rules can help avoid some nasty and unnecessary problems.
There may be some controversies about such rules, and some people might have plausible arguments for why the rules are too broad or too demanding. But I assume that you'd rather err on the side of caution, so I try to recommend the safest course.
A. Avoiding Plagiarism
1. The two harms of plagiarism
Everyone knows you shouldn't plagiarize—but what exactly does that mean? For instance, are you safe if you just include a footnote citing