Assessed Essay ahoy! Where to start? Lesson 1.

So, the answer to this question is not with Google!

Begin by working out what the question is asking you. Write it out in your own words. If you’re not sure what a word means you need to be careful about how you find a definition. Legal terms can mean something subtly different from the standard definition. A great example of this is “distinguish”. You might be faced with a question which asks you how one or more decided court cases might be distinguished from each another. A quick google of “distinguished” tells me that it relates to people who are “wise, accomplished and professional looking”. If I apply that definition to the question I’m not going to have a clue what its asking me! I get on a lot better if I google “legal definition of distinguished”. Now I know that this is when a court decides that the legal reasoning of a precedent case will not apply due to a material difference of facts between two cases. Having sorted that out I can rewrite the question and check back to ensure that what I’ve written is a correct interpretation of the question.

What next? Still not Google – sorry! You might want to set up a referencing system so that you can keep track of everything you read in one place and be in a position to press a computer button at the end to get the references printed out in the correct form. Doing this can save you a whole load of angst and also ensure that you don’t inadvertently fall foul of any plagiarism regulations. There are some great systems out there and you should check with the librarian at your university for a recommendation. I’m a huge fan of Mendeley, I think it transforms the referencing task and it’s free, but there are other systems which might be just as good, Refworks, for example, is another well-known system. I can’t stress enough that doing this is going to save you a heap of time so don’t be in such a rush to set off with your essay writing that you overlook this stage.

Right, now’s the time to actually start the research. No, not Google! You will have received training on Lexis Nexis and Westlaw and if you’ve applied for a legal job you’ve probably put your certification of competence on your application form. Use the knowledge you have and start your research. A good place to begin can be relevant journal articles. Use the search engines and see what comes up. You might find that you get newspaper articles or legal journals (depending on your essay title). Browse around. Keep your essay title in front of you all the time and keep looking back at it to see if what you are reading is relevant. If not, move on. If it is relevant log the material in your referencing system (which might even allow you to annotate pdfs for later).

As you read you should start to find some expression of opinions. It might be very important for you to have a clear understanding of the argument around a particular topic so take account of both sides if there seems to be a disagreement. What do you think? Do you agree with one point of view or another or can you see the merits of both arguments? It might be helpful to separate out the ideas in your notes. At this stage it can also be useful to do a first draft of the opening paragraph. If you are doing a discursive essay it will allow you to start to sketch out your approach. You might do numerous drafts of that paragraph so don’t feel that you’re done with it – just use the drafting exercise as a tool to help you start to develop your argument.

More on how to develop that argument next time…….