Law Papers

You are now at law university or in law school; this means you can already use legal writing style – as opposed to when you are still applying and writing your law school admission essay or law personal statement.  You are even expected to do so and it will be a great plus to your law essay writing.

Legal writing style is used not only in law essay writing but also in answering law problem questions, preparing law reports and in law dissertations.  Here are some tips that will enable you to write in the legal style:

• Be Clear and Concise – Contrary to misinformed public perception, legal writing style is not flowery nor lengthy.  It is distinctively – in contrast to creative writing – factual, straightforward and does not use a lot of words to pad it.  Thus, be clear and concise.  These two adjectives complement each other as you can be clear by being concise and you can be concise by being clear.
• Legal Style – With clarity and conciseness, explain the reasoning and facts of the statutes and cases you have researched or have in your stock knowledge.  Then, demonstrate how they are relevant with one another and how they are applicable to the facts in the given case or scenario.
• Jurisprudence and Case Law – Included in the legal writing style is comparing previous cases or scenarios to the case or scenario of the essay examination or essay assignment at hand.  Use facts in doing the comparison.
• Demonstrate Legal Knowledge – Law essays should be written in step-by-step presentation or analysis.  You should explain each step even when you know your reader (law professor) has more legal knowledge than you do.  As readers, your professors are interested in your law essay writing not because they want to get knowledge but because they want to know what you “know.”