Coming up with a winning personal statement law school is a step closer to getting accepted into your dream school. Because law school admission panels read hundreds or thousands of essays, it’s important that you come up with an essay that’ll stand out from the rest while giving the readers a glimpse of your personality. An effective essay is one that appeals to the readers. Read on for some hints and tips on how to persuade your readers that you deserve to a spot at your dream law school.
Understanding the possible types of audiences
The readers of your personal statement for law school may fall into these categories: kinesthetic, auditory, or visual. These categories pertain to the way they learn things or absorb information. One is considered a kinesthetic learner if he or she quickly learns a concept by actually doing or performing it. As for auditory learners, they are more perceptive when they listen. Visual learners are those people who easily absorb and comprehend information when they read or look at images.
Tips in appealing to your audience the right way
The key to a persuasive admission essay is to appeal to all these types of learners. This means you have to come up with an essay that includes activities or programs you joined in your pre-law years (for kinesthetic learners), vivid descriptions of relevant situations or experiences (for visual learners), and instances wherein your excellent oral communications were recognized or put to test (for auditory learners).
When trying to include all these in your personal statement, it’s important to keep your focus on your topic or thesis. An essay with so many irrelevant details makes it look sloppy and unprofessional.
It’s also important to keep in mind that when trying to appeal to your readers, it’s a no-no to appeal to their pity. Aside from the fact that this can make you sound desperate, doing so undermines the important skills and traits you have acquired during pre-law years. For example, if you’re planning on discussing a life-changing tragic experience in your essay, do not delve into what you felt during those times. Instead, focus more on how these experiences have made you stronger or how you were able to tackle these obstacles.
By knowing how to appeal to your audience the right way, you’ll be able to come up with a more persuasive essay. You’ll be able to effectively convey to your essay readers that you really deserve an acceptance letter from your dream law school.
A legal brief is a summation of a case or legal argument that is presented in court. It should be factual while remaining concise, and direct to the point. Legal writing classes in first year and moot court competitions teach law students some of the basics of drafting legal briefs. However, some cases in the real world have floundered due to poorly written legal briefs. Here are a few tips to guide legal practitioners, and refresh the memories of some, in writing a good legal brief.
KISS
Keep it short and simple. Courts usually have a set of rules that govern brief-writing. The Supreme Court has one that has been in effect since January 1, 1990. When fighting a federal appeal case though, grab a FRAP, not the coffee drink, but a handbook of the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure. These handbooks enumerate everything from page margins to length of the brief that should strictly be followed by the brief writer.
Questions Presented
Drafting the questions is a tremulous task. Questions that obviously point toward your favor is not presenting the facts clearly. Master the art of formulating sentences that are neutral-sounding but have subtle hints of the side you are arguing for.
Drop the prose
Law speak as we all know is heavy with prose and other jargon. Facts are crammed in a breath that painfully lasts like a five-line paragraph. Remember that facts should be presented clearly. Take note of the reader’s attention span and patience.
Statement of Fact
All lawyers know that all facts that are put in the brief should be those that can be found on the known record of the case. This consistency with known facts preserve the credibility of the whole brief, and can help you win your case. Other facts, though, can be presented with caution if they are relevant and in a descriptive light instead of a defensive manner.
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