How to Learn CREAC
Dear 1L,
The No. 1 question 1Ls are asking me this week is, “Can you explain CREAC?”
So if you, too, are confused, you are not stupid and nothing is wrong with you.
It is very hard to start writing in a structure that is completely unlike anything you have ever written before.
And writing is thinking, so you are being forced to THINK in a totally new way—not just when reading cases, but now when writing about them.
It is really hard.
I didn’t “get” it until well into 2L.
It is a bit like riding a bike, though. Once you “get” CREAC, you will start to write this way always when you are briefing.
🔑 The key is to start by using CREAC on ONE court case. 🔑
By doing a CREAC of an individual case, you can learn the structure in a simple, closed-end environment that will help you more easily see how the different parts of the larger analysis work together.
You can then build the memo out from the cases.
Doing this will:
1: Teach you the case you are writing about.
2: Help you understand the new area of law.
3: Train you to start thinking in the CREAC structure.
4: Make it easier to learn the larger CREAC structure for the memo as a whole.
—> I actually want you to force yourself to type out at least one full, formal CREAC for one of the relevant court cases you find in your research, and then once you’ve gotten the hang of it, you can do the remainder of cases in shorthand or outline form.
👉 In the attachment to the email version of this letter—which I will send out to 225 subscribers this morning—I provide a model for how I would do CREAC on a short court case.
If you would like to receive, you can sign up here: writinglawtutors.com/for-students/
RECAP:
🔹 Learn CREAC one case at a time.
🔹 After you do a CREAC for one case, we can then start to build the memo from the ground up and use the same structure for each section of the analysis.
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Fondly,
💌 Amanda
#Dear1L
P.S. Some of your professors use CRAC, IRAC, TRAC, or some other variation. Please don’t get caught up in the difference between the acronyms, as they all ultimately get you to the same result.