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| Photo credit from cyberlawcentre.org |
Are
you looking for help on writing legal essays and dissertation format?
You can find a heap of legal resources in our site. In this blog,
we discuss the nature of legal essays and give you a secret formula
for tackling legal essay problem questions.
Yes,
these questions can be quite tricky but they all ask for the same
thing – for you to answer what is asked in the questions, among
other things. It is very important, then, to carefully analyse the
question, even dissect it piece by piece to be able to give the best
answer.
Identify
keywords
Firstly,
essay questions are categorical, asking you to analyse, to describe, to investigate, to contrast, and to compare, among others. These keywords are
found in the essay question itself. Highlight the keyword/s found in
the question, and then plan your course of action. If it asks you to
describe the subject, then that is enough clue to help you approach
the subject.
Planning
your content
Planning
your content is a bit complicated because it depends largely on what
is asked in the question. Although your lecturer gives you the
freedom to decide on the content, it remains confined to the
question. Meaning, all your answers must aim to answer the question.
Another
hard truth is you will need legal references, you cannot just answer
legal essay problem questions based on your opinion. Unlike other
coursework writing assignments, legal essays should not deviate from
fundamental legal references where your answers should hinge on.
This makes research a pivotal part of writing this type of paper.
Collate
research materials
As
soon as you deem your resources complete, collate everything. If you
know what to look for, this will be a piece of cake. Moreover, if
you picked out the right research materials you will find it easy
select the most important facts for your answers.
Set
down to write
Here
are steps to do when you are ready to write your legal essays:
- Offer a brief introduction identifying the relevant area of law and any major legislation or cases that will be relevant
- Identify relevant issues - do not repeat the question or the facts
- Identify relevant legislation and/or case law (use only one or two relevant cases for each point you make and don't just regurgitate the facts of the precedent case)
- Apply the facts to the legislation/case law
- Conclude (you may not be able to give a definite answer)
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1 comments:
I like your article. keep up writing good articles.
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