7 Steps to Improve Your Writing Sample
Dear Rising 2L: If you use your 1L memo or brief as a writing sample for job applications, you have some work to do. Here are 7 key steps:
1️⃣ Incorporate the final corrections and edits from your TA & professor.
2️⃣ If your Sample is longer than the required page length, decide which section to cut and how to edit for overall flow, so that cutting section(s) doesn’t make things too hard for your reader to follow.
Here are 4 ways I’ve seen recent writing-sample excerpts miss the mark:
> They don’t make clear who you represent or what you seek.
> The Facts Section is omitted, leaving no framework for the case.
> Defined terms got cut when a section was omitted.
> The Legal Standard is omitted, but there’s no succinct synopsis of it before the Argument, so the points don’t make sense.
3️⃣ Nothing frosts a Reader more than having to read something with no page numbers. They are absolutely essential.
Start page 1 on the first page of your brief’s text.
—The cover memo, title page, and Tables of Contents/Authorities are NOT included in the pages that count toward the page limit.
4️⃣ Craft a short cover memo.
See my June 8, 2023 post.
5️⃣ Put Your Name on the Writing Sample itself.
Many of the writing samples sent to me included exam numbers only, with no way to know which one corresponded to what student. I had to go through several emails after printing the samples to figure out who had sent them. A law-firm attorney might not bother.
Don’t let your writing sample fall through the cracks among the hundreds, even thousands, that a firm may receive.
>Include your name clearly on the first page of your brief. (It’s not enough to include it only in a cover memo).
>Better yet, create a small footer with your first initial and last name. That way, if any pages get separated, they are easily put together again.
6️⃣ Change citations and other underlining to italics.
I know you’re required to underline for legal writing class, but for the writing sample you’ll send out with your resume, you should use italics.
In the real world, no one underlines. We all use italics.
Benefits:
> It’s faster to type.
> It avoids the look of text that’s cut up with choppy underlines
> You don’t need to know if you underline the period after Id.
> It looks more professional.
> It forces you to check your citations closely. You’ll find mistakes.
> While you’re at it trying to spot errors, you might as well read each sentence again.
👉I bet you can find how to cut more words.
7️⃣ Read your Sample again closely to fix all the typos and awkward sentences. I promise you that many will still exist.
* * *
Please let me know if you have any questions.
Fondly,
💌 Amanda
#lawschool
#lawstudents
#legalwriting