Critique of Anna Ivey Blog

December 3rd, 2009

A very helpful blog for law students around the country based on fame writer Anna Ivey, this blog deals with a range of issues and situations that law schools students face from time to time, such as transferring to a new school, and how it can affect your credentials and standings.

What makes the blog unique

The great thing about some of the articles is that they really go into details on what and what not to do when transferring schools, and why you should do it. Other topics covered in the blog are how to deal with student loans, how your TOEFL test results could affect the choice of your school, and how your debt could determine whether or not you are fit to take the bar exam. Another neat thing about this blog is that it also accepts e-mails from readers as they post questions on the site while the author gladly gives her advice for everyone to see. The blog goes deep in context as it also has discussions on the current state of law schools as a whole, as can be read in an article entitled Are Law Schools Churning Out Too Many Lawyers? This entry asks the question whether or not law schools are producing too many lawyers to fit the demand, and how this massive influx of lawyers coming in year in and year out has greatly affected the competitiveness of the job market.

Areas for improvement

While this blog gets much praise in the writing department, it seriously needs a makeover on its layout. At first glance, it looks too plain to grab your attention. If you came across it by accident, you would be missing out on how informative and helpful the articles actually are because you probably would pay no attention to it. The only pictures you could find on the blog are the picture of Anna Ivey herself, and a shot of her book cover.

Critique of Luke Gilman Blog

November 29th, 2009

The Blawgraphy is a blog owned, written, and managed by Mr. Luke Gilman, a law student of the University of Houston Law Center. Mr. Gilman shares his different experiences, and likes and dislikes, which I’m sure most law students could relate to. The Blawgraphy also has different book reviews that are law-related, which Luke posts on his blog. Much of his reviews are focused on books that might fancy other law students as well.

What makes the blog unique

The writer really knows his target audience, as he stays on point with topics that would interest him and topics that involve law students not only in Houston but around the country as well. His review on David Dow’s Judicial Activism Makes America Great takes excerpts from the book as well as giving his points of view on the book. The blog also has linked videos attached to it which involve seminars from different individuals in the law industry. It also includes pictures that are related to each article. The layout is quite pleasing to the eye, and the links are spread out neatly on the left side of the blog, making it easy to navigate to other hot topics and previous posts.

Areas for improvement

Although his articles about his life in law school are interesting and amusing, they are too short. Each article feels like a summary of what he wants to say. It would have been nice if he had gone more into detail with his stories. Another area for improvement aside from the short, written articles is the links that take up more space on the blog than the articles do. A little more emphasis on the articles would have given the Blawgraphy a better standing.

The Legal Scholarship Blog is more of a bulletin board for different events, which are law-related. The blog features calls for papers, conferences, workshops, and more importantly, general resources for law scholarships.

What makes sets this blog apart from the others

What makes it a very credible blog is that it??s managed by the faculty and staff of the University of Pittsburgh School of Law and The Gallagher Law Library of the University of Washington. As I further went through the blog, I was a bit surprised to find more posts about events and workshops, which are all law-related. What struck me were the few available resources for law scholarships. The heavy emphasis on workshops and seminars does not go well with its name, Legal Scholarship Blog. Someone who came across this blog looking for a source for legal scholarships would be disappointed to find the blog bombarded with announcements of events happening in other parts of the world.

When it comes to being a source of law-related seminars and workshops, the Legal Scholarship Blog has a quite impressive amount of events posted on the blog. From calls of papers from New York to all the way in India, this blog has it covered. Countless seminars and workshops across the country and the world would be helpful for any lawyer who comes across this blog. It also has a very wide range of seminars and workshops to choose from, divided by each different university that may be offering them.

Critique of Law Tutors Blog

November 15th, 2009

The Law Tutors blog gives the much needed advice to pre-law, law, and bar students. Tons of advice and help are given to these people who are preparing for law school, studying law, or getting ready for a bar exam. They also offer one-on-one and small group tutorials to those who are interested. They also specialize in essay writing and other concerns for the bar exam.

What makes the blog unique

Anyone thinking about going to law school or taking the bar exam should check out this blog. There large number of articles are aimed at helping people choose their school, as well as what and what not to do before law school. There are also practical tips on what not to write about in essays for law school, and these are quite impressive. The entry What You Should Know Before Law School is an interesting piece as well.

If you do fall under this category, you will find that several of the articles posted on this blog will be very helpful to you. For those who are in law school, they also have articles directed toward them. Different advice on what to specialize in and how to study when in law school are given throughout the blog.

Areas for improvement

Although the blog has a good collection of articles on helping out students for law school and bar exams in general, the blog seems to be very lacking when it comes to visuals. Having some pictures or visual aids and media would have been a nice addition to this already great blog. Another thing is that since they do also offer tutorial classes, one might suspect that they might use this blog as a marketing scheme or a form of advertisement for their tutorial center.

An excellent personal statement law school should be written like a provocative speech. This simply means that your essay should have the qualities that could arouse the curiosity of the readers and could satisfy that curiosity. Your personal statement for law school should also be creative and attention-grabbing. More than anything else, it should create an emotional or intellectual impact to those who read it. Read on to know how to write your personal statement for law school like a provocative speech.

Attention-grabbing intros

One way to make the admissions officers read your entire essay is to make the first few lines catchy or interesting. You can make your intro attention-grabbing by stating something fresh and unique. If your introduction is interesting enough, the admissions officers would get hooked and would really want to know more about you. However, you also have to put effort on the body and conclusion of your essay because these two are just as important as the intro.

Details in the body that satisfy the readers’ curiosity

As mentioned earlier, the body should be just as good as the intro. The body of your essay is very important because this is where details about you is found. So, you have to make sure that you satisfy the readers by providing relevant details about yourself in relation to your law school application.

Conclusions that make a strong impact

The conclusion of your personal statement for law school should also be as catchy as the intro and as comprehensive as the body. An excellent conclusion would make the admissions committee remember your essay. So, you really have to write a conclusion that would leave a good impression on the mind of the readers. Leave a positive note or sum up everything with the hope of getting admitted to law school. Conclusions are supposed to be short but engaging.

Related links:

Appealing Personal Statements – On how to write appealing law school personal statements
Writer’s Block – On how to combat writer’s block when writing admission essays
Law School Profiles – Guide to law school applications
Law Admission Essay – Writing a law school admission essay
Law School Application – Tips on your law school application

A draft, however full of ideas, questions, thoughts, and answers can never be perfect unless revised by its writer. To effectively write a personal statement for law school, you must always be aware of your purpose in writing the essay, your target audience, and what they need to read from your essay. Focusing on these three essential tips will guarantee you a well-crafted personal statement that will escort you all the way to law school admission.

Relax and enjoy the task

To be relaxed while writing is the true essence of an effective personal statement. Take a break, do breathing exercises, and put your feet up. Loosen up when gathering all your thoughts and ideas, so that all the unprocessed information will prove to be a creatively done essay.

For effective personal statements, your mind should be free from any anxiety. Better stop worrying about the rules. Bring all your ideas together to make a very prolific content. Just think about the conciseness, grammar and spelling rules when you are already polishing your essay. Thinking too much about rules while in the first phase of drafting your essay might just do more bad than good.

The first tip is to make an outline. This will be your skeleton in presenting your information to your reader. As we know, it is very important to get across your reader; otherwise, it defeats the purpose of writing.

Be open to changes

Make an outline that will serve as your guide for writing a personal statement law school. Through this structure, you will be able to come up with an effective essay that will surely catch the attention of your readers. A good structure should manifest a very organized presentation of details, matching up with a good transition between points. But despite having already formed a structure for your essay, make sure you are also open to possible changes you will need to inject on your personal statement. Your personal statements will never come out well unless polished by implementing changes.

Explore different ways of writing your essay

There are various ways by which you can write your essay. And whichever writing style you choose, make sure that your essay will effectively communicate your ideas to the readers. You may try using the form of a narrative essay wherein you write your essay as if telling a story. It is a very effective way of catching the attention of the readers because it comes out like you and your reader are merely conversing.

Related links:

Med school preparations
Personal statement tips – Practical tips on essay writing
Law school essay – About connecting to your audience through the essay
Convincing personal stataments – About writing a convincing personal statement
Personal statement mistakes – About personal statement mistakes to avoid

A great personal statement is your ticket to law school admission. So what are the qualities of an excellent personal statement that could put you right into the priority list? Below are the characteristics of a good law school application essay that could give you better chances of gaining admissions to the prestigious law school.

Personal statements that stay focused on the topic

One of the qualities of an excellent essay is that it stays focused on the topic. This is why when you write your essay, you should only include the details that are relevant to your application. To do this, just choose a topic or two and then make your essay revolve around these topics.

Personal statements that are organized and easy to read

Clarity and coherence are also among the elements found in a good essay. The ideas should be organized in order to achieve clarity. You can do this by using transitional devices and by explaining everything well. Check for phrases that can lead to misinterpretation. Make sure that you are clear with your points, and that you back up claims with facts and other supporting details. Your admission essay is a way for you to profess logical reasoning. If you really want to be a lawyer, you have to be articulate and objective.

Personal statements that best express your personality

The personal statement should be about you. This is why you have to write it in such a way that shows your personality. To do this, you should use a personal approach. You should also talk about some of your experiences, goals, and aspirations. By doing this, you would give the admissions committee a four-dimensional image of yourself.

Your essay is a great factor in the success of your law school application. This is why you have to work harder to make your essay interesting, focused, and coherent.

Related links:

Law School Curriculum – Things you need to know about law school
Writer’s Block – On how to combat writer’s block when writing admission essays
Law School Profiles – Guide to law school applications
Law School Application – Tips on your law school application
Law Admission Essay – Writing a law school admission essay

A blog about the Center for Internet and Society, this blog talks mostly about technology and politics. It has a quite a number or writers, which they call their Central Processing Unit, as well as contributing writers, so the tones and topics of the articles have a wide range as well.

What makes the blog unique

What I noticed is the issue of health care in the United States is a recurring topic on the blog. The writer goes into different tones in approaching this issue, but stands firm on the belief that reform must be taken. In one of his stories entitled A red/blue dialogue on health care, he tells of how he had an argument with an old high school friend on the issue of health care reform. He being the liberal making his point to his conservative Republican friend, the story is worth reading as he puts in much passion in making his point. The other articles also dwell into other casual topics such as quizzes on Facebook and Walt Disney buying an overly priced issue of Spiderman. The range of topics covered are wide, and other articles are about law school, lawsuits, and cases which are connected to the Internet, such as libel cases on blogs, or harassment issues over social network sites like MySpace. The topics are written well in a casual yet informative tone.

Areas for improvement

While this blog has as a strong point in its well-written and informative articles, it lacks in the eye-candy department. The layout is quite okay, with limited pictures that accompany the articles. Navigation through the blog is quite okay, and the articles are arranged in such a way for easy access, with a search button located on the upper right section of the blog. The only thing I found lacking in this great blog was a set of great-looking pictures to go with the already interesting articles.

They say that good law school essays are thought-provoking. However, by writing in this manner, there’s also the risk of putting off your readers. This could happen if you are not careful in stating your opinion on your essay. Although your personal statement should reveal your thoughts, ideas, and emotions, you still have to strive harder to make your essay objective and acceptable to everyone. Below are some things you can consider to make your law school essay acceptable to all.

Be sensitive to the opinion of your readers

It is true that the personal statement is about you. But you should not be so tactless to disregard the opinion of your readers when writing your essay. Being sensitive to the opinion of your readers would prevent any negative reaction from your readers. This would also give an impression that you are considerate, mature, and objective because you already know how to curb your thoughts and emotions.

Don’t use offensive remarks

Using offensive remarks on your law school admissions essay is a no-no. Doing this would only show your immaturity. You have to show the admissions committee that you are sensitive and mature enough to know what are the things that could hurt other people. Also be sure to back up any claim with supporting details.

Be careful with word choice

Your choice of words is a very important factor that would make or break your law school application. Your word choice would determine your sensitivity to the feelings of other people. As much as possible, choose neutral words. You also have to make sure that the phrases are not prone to misinterpretation. Take note of proper diction. Be personal but still retain a sense of formality. Focus on clarity of thoughts and ideas, instead of the urge to impress readers.

Related links:

Law School Curriculum – Things you need to know about law school
Financing Your Education – About financing your law school education
Time Management – The importance of time management skills in law school
Admission Essay Tips – More tips on admission essay writing
Law School Admission – Guide to law school admission

Because of the nature of the law field and profession, admissions committees tend to expect more from personal statements for law school than for other programs. Those who are intending to apply for law schools should manifest ability to reason out well, a certain level of composure, and ability to see through arguments and cases, among others. In one way or another, law school admissions committees would look for those things in you through your personal statement, so don?t forget to take note of the following things when writing your personal statement for law school.

Logical reasoning

A big bulk of the law profession involves logical reasoning so it?s important that you show you have aptitude for that. Make sure that the ideas in your personal statement sum up to your main thesis. Beware of flaws or weaknesses since they can be points against you.

How you say it

How you state your arguments is just as important as the arguments themselves. You should plan how to effectively lay your cards to make sure of victory. In writing your personal statement for law school, your statement?s overall form, package and the arrangement of your ideas and statements are very important.

Personality

You can cite certain experiences or instances showing that you possess the characteristics essential to a law profession: composure, common sense, and ability to plan several steps ahead, among others. Your personal statement for your law school application is your way of introducing yourself to the admissions committee. This is where they try to know the kind of person you are.

Related links:

Appealing to your audience – Personal statement writing tips
Ready to submit essays: dangers – Personal statement writing tips regarding ready-to-submit essays
Fighting writer?s block in writing law school personal statement – Personal statement writing tips on how to fight the writer’s block
Law school essays about online habits – Personal statement topic tips
Law school personal statement about movies – More personal statement topic tips

Law school essay – Law school essay writing tips
Essay writing tips – Essay writing tips on how to come up with a topnotch admissions essay
Focusing on your personality in application essays – More essay writing tips for law school applicationLaw school essay secrets – Law school essay writing tips and tricks
Law school personal statements advice – Law school essay writing tips