How to write a standard 2:1 Law Essay
Writing a quality law essay that is not only accurate in its use of language and grammar but also in its meaning and overall gist requires a lot more than good writing skills. Writing law essays that would guarantee first-class results is a very challenging task that requires you to have practical and theoretical knowledge of the subject matter which should be available in a theoretical and analytical sense. Writing law essays, much like medical essays, is an area of expertise that only those with a relevant background are able to write convincingly. A superior law essay would certainly be a combination of excellent legal analysis and a well-structured, grammatically correct piece of writing.
Management teaches us that the first step to everything is to “plan”. Therefore, when thinking about how to write a law essay, just like every other essay question, you start off writing a law essay by first developing a clear understanding of what exactly the question is trying to ask. Are you being asked to state facts or are you being asked to use your analytical skills? In either case, the first step is always to read and thoroughly understand the question statement.
In analysing a question, the first and perhaps the easiest thing is to identify and decide upon the key area or topic that the question is focusing upon. Having done that, you should then try and figure out what is it that should be discussed regarding this key area in this particular law essay. A good strategy is to jot down or brainstorm quick notes and pointers regarding everything that you might assume to be relevant to this topic in the law essay. This road map would not only help you to stay focused on the essay but also enables you to better structure your piece of writing.
Introduction
The introduction of your law essay should provide the reader a glimpse of how you will go about answering the question. An introduction is one of the most important parts of a law essay because it not only tells the reader whether you've comprehended the question completely or not, but also, it is a preview of the strategy that you will adopt in answering the question. It is all about managing your first impressions. A boring, wordy and, most importantly, vague introduction, will fail to grab the readers interest or convince them to read the remainder of your essay. A great tip when considering how to write a law essay is to make sure that if you give it to a friend or colleague, they are able to understand what it is you are trying to say.
Body
The body of your law essay is like its backbone. This is the part of your essay where you display and flaunt all your thoughts, your analytical skills, your understanding of the question and the legal concepts that the question is trying to explore. Again, rambling on with long sentences and an amalgamation of incorrectly used technical terms will be detrimental to the overall paper. We suggest that when writing your law essay you follow a proper logical pattern in stating your arguments. The body of the essay should be structured such that all the points are relevant to one another, and are connected rationally, that there must be no redundancy, and that the ideas are stated clearly and concisely. Separating paragraphs for different arguments, using bullets and sub-headings are all very effective techniques of properly structuring the body of your law essay.
One of the most important elements of your law essay, that many students often fail to adhere to and lose precious marks on, is that of proper citation and referencing of the content or ideas used within the text of the essay's body. It is very important that you back up ALL your arguments with CORRECT references (be it a book or a published journal article), where ever someone else's ideas have been used to inspire your writing. For instance; assume that you are arguing on the rightfulness of a certain act and you back up your argument by referring to a previous case by where the judgement was made in favour of that action, it is highly crucial to properly and fully refer to that certain case in your writing. Most Law essays require you to use OSCOLA referencing within your essay. Your university should provide you with an up to date guide, or alternatively check out OXFORD LAW for up-to-date information!
Conclusion
The conclusion is a very important part of your law essay because it summarises all of the arguments that you have highlighted in the body of your essay and provides the most logical deductions from the discussion. It is the part of your essay that best tests your analytical skills from the conclusions you draw against the arguments you state. A thoroughly thought and well-presented conclusion will seal the deal for a first class law essay!
Overall, writing law essays is different than writing other forms of essays and requires you to have a more professional take on the subject matter. If you have a legal background then you should have the ability and confidence and to present your ideas in a manner that many might never be able to. Writing law essays requires that you take the task of writing them, very seriously. This requires you to use formal language and an excellent demonstration of grammar and vocabulary. Excellent vocabulary doesn't necessarily mean you have to pick the hardest words out of the thesaurus, but it certainly means using a reader friendly language that is easy to comprehend for a lay-man but is free of any slang or informal terminology.
Revision
After you finish writing the essay, the next stage is the revision. No matter how confident you are in your writing and analytical skills, there is always the possibility to have overlooked something; furthermore, there may be typos that need fixing right away. The revision stage does not take long, and it may be accomplished by either reading the paper yourself, asking a fellow classmate or friend to read it and tell you what mistakes to repair, or you can use our professional proofreading and editing service, enhancing your chance of receiving a high mark.
Plagiarism
Finally, plagiarism by its very definition is something unlawful and unethical. You can never hope to get a good grade in a “law essay” that is written by the unlawful means of “Plagiarism”. Remember, its plagiarism if you copy an entire page from another book and paste it in your essay as yours. It is still plagiarism if you copy a single line without referring to the original source of that text. You have to give the credit to the sources that are inspiring the ideas that you are displaying in your law essay.
The bottom line is that your law essay should be successful in accurately answering the question being addressed and to add value to the knowledge of the reader. By working on the guidelines given above, you can be sure of moving in the right direction in how to write a law essay.
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