The easy way to write a law essay

The very first step is actually seeing the list of questions that you have to choose an essay from. This may sound strange but if you prepare yourself for this first step, it will help to make the whole exercise easier.

• Tell yourself before you see the list that there is no need to panic or feel stressed whatever your options are. This will prepare you.
• If you feel your eyes flicking up and down the list without reading any of the questions through properly, even though you have prepared yourself, you are getting stressed. Being stressed over writing your law essay will not help you. It will hinder you. Stress hormones flowing to your brain can cause you want to run away or get in an all-out panic. Once you recognise the stressful feeling, you can tell yourself to contain it.
• If you feel still feel overwhelmed as your eyes rove over your options, put the paper away until you can look at it calmly.
• Inspect the questions when you are prepared. You can do this by being somewhere quiet and deep breathing. Drinking camomile tea and listening to natural sounds, such a dolphins calling, will help to soothe you.

• Read all the questions through two or three times. The reason for this is that when you read something familiar, you will automatically think that is the question that you are going to write your law essay on. However, that does not always prove to be the best choice.
• If, after reading the questions, there are any that made your brain scream inside because you hate the subject or you don’t quite understand it, put a cross at the side of that question.
• Look at the questions that make you feel comfortable and put a question mark at the side of them. You may at this point think that if there is one question that you really like then you are going to do that one. The reason for the question mark is for you to ask yourself if you are settling for something that you are totally familiar with. If so, you may produce a tired argument that you have come across before. This won’t get you top grades. Remember, this is the long game. You are writing essays to get the best degree possible to further your law career.
• Look at the questions that interest you but you aren’t too familiar with the subject. If the topic excites you, you should put a question mark and a star beside that question.
• Look back at your list and begin with the question that has a question mark and a star beside it. Re-write the question in your own words. This is a great exercise because it helps you to understand the question better. Show your interpretation of the question to people whose academic ability you respect. It’s important that you haven’t misunderstood the question. Showing your newly written question to other people is simply insurance.
• Explore how you can answer the question. Write a list of sources you can use. Think of points that you can put into your law essay. If you have trouble finding enough evidence that you can use, this not the right question for you. However, if you find yourself feeling exhilarated by your list of resources and the points are coming thick and fast onto your list, you have found your question.
• In the case of you still not finding your question, you can go back to the familiar one but promise yourself that you will find new evidence to back up your argument. Remember to keep it fresh. Examiners and tutors will have to read more than just your law essay on your chosen subject. Make sure that they look upon it favourably by being as original as is possible.

Once you have got your law essay question list and you have chosen your subject you should not procrastinate. The reptile part of our brain, the amygdala, draws us towards pleasure and directs us to avoid pain at all costs. Unfortunately, millions of years ago, before we were the human beings that we are today, we did not need to write essays.

When you know that you have an essay to write but the magnetic draw to the union bar is stronger than the essay writing, you should reach a compromise with yourself. Make yourself read and take notes for a couple of hours and then seek your pleasure. Whatever you do, don’t it the other way around. It doesn’t matter how intelligent you are, reading articles about expert witnesses’ statements being admissible to the jury will not make sense after a couple of pints of strong cider or whatever your chosen poison is.

Although it may seem like a waste of time, constant note taking while background reading is one of the best time savers you can practise. If you have the full details to hand of every source you cite and every case you mention in your evidence, you will find that when you actually write your law essay, the process will be a smooth and painless one. It is frustrating to have to break off from your writing to search through a pile of journals for the name of an expert witness that you wish to verbally decimate.

Make a detailed note of every title you read or skim over. You may think that it is pointless to keep a record of a title that you are not going to use, however, it is important to have the author and the title to hand. The reason for this is twofold. First of all, a large amount of time can be wasted looking over papers that you have previously read and discarded. If the journal is on your list, you won’t look at it twice. Furthermore, you will need to put all the titles, authors and publishers of works that you have read in your bibliography at the end of your law essay.

Writers divide themselves into two groups – Type A that writes without any planning as they explore where the writing takes them. Alternatively, Type B has the whole story worked out before they start writing. In other words, they make a plan. Type A might work when writing fiction but you should never attempt it when writing an essay. You should always plan, therefore, the question here is whether you should apply a close planning method or a loose planning method before you start to write your law essay.

Using the loose planning model means that your plan consists of a list of points and little else. The advantages of this are that it is a quick way to plan and if you have an essay tick list, you can quickly tick off ‘plan’ and instantly feel as if you are moving forward with your law essay. It also means that if you decide to change your argument, you will not have spent as much time working on your plan so you will not have wasted time.

The disadvantages of using a loose plan model is that when you come to write your essay, you will take much longer writing it because you have not worked out all the points and details that you want to use in your argument.

Using a close plan model is disadvantageous in that it takes a lot of work to think out all the headings and sub headings of your argument so that they flow logically. If you have a deadline looming, you may worry that you haven’t even begun to write your paper and simply ditch the idea of working out your plan in such close detail.

However, the advantages of putting so much work into a close plan are that when you actually write your law essay, it can flow along easily because you have already done all the hard work. Another advantage is that because you have worked at the details so closely, you will find that you probably will not have any holes in your argument, whereas you might with a loose plan.