why wisconsin grads suck at legal writing
We're going over how to write our trial briefs in class. The big deal about this semester is that we were supposed to go do our own research and learn to form our own arguments.We've spent the last hour and a half going over everyone's research, and exactly what research should go where in the brief, and basically...the professor is telling us exactly what to write and what arguments she wants each side to make... Because we're totally going to have a professor telling us what to write when we get out into the real world.
Isn't the whole point to push us out of the nests and see if we can fly on our own, then give us some constructive feedback so that we have the confidence to write briefs on our own this summer (and beyond)?
All I want is for her to tell me how to structure a brief. That's it. I'll take care of the rest.
posted by Dangerous Mind @ 14:45
6 Comments:
yes, but you can depend on the moot court tryout for the experience of being thrown out there on your own...
of course, then we won't get any constructive feedback, just an up-down made-it/didn't...
very true, TC. and with an applicant pool of, what, 150 kids? the impending thumbs-down is really going to help.
Wait till you get the grades and find out that no matter what, they curve everyone down to an 84-85 for all sections. Don't bother rewriting beyond what the comments are on your first draft. It isn't worth your time.
Also, wait till you find out that the grades are based on individual quirky style and format preferences instead of content. I know. Its just like handing one in to a partner, but I was always hoping for real content feedback.
i second that anonymous post. at my law school, they give us little/no guidance on which arguments to make, and do this whole "if i told you, you wouldn't learn anything" dance so you never know when your arguments suck until they say "i think [etc.] says it more clearly" without telling you what "clearly" means.
so don't kill yourself over it.
I always appreciated that if we followed formats of the example memos that they distributed, we'd get slammed in the grading for not somehow devining their preferred format which was not used in the examples. In class they'd express the freedom of format, but then dock you for not heading sections in a particular way.
Freaks!
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