Learn to Read, Write Like a Law Student Before Classes Start

Speaking with a law school adviser over the summer butthelp incoming law students prepare for upcoming written materialassignments.

 

Getting into law school is a battle for some(prenominal)students, but making it through the beginning(a)year can be just as hard.

 

 

The reading assignments take hours to sail throughandargonoften unlike anything students experienced as undergrads. They aroften asked to empathiseabout appellate court decisions, for example, which areusually filled with intelligentjargon.

"In some ways you'reattainmenta new vocabulary," says Bernard Bell, a law professor at Rutgers, the State University of bare-assJersey—Newark. "You're running back and forth to your law dictionary every few words."

Students atomic number 18usually anticipateto spend two hours of preparation – perhaps reading andthemebriefs – for every hour of class in a given subject, such as torts or constitutional law. If a first-year student, known as 1L, is taking 15 credits, "You're lectureabout 30 hours of preparation," bellsays.

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In addition to learning how to immortalisedifferently, students are also expected to learn how to write differently. to the highest degreestudents are often required to take a juralresearch and writing class in their first year.

Learning how to read and write legal terminology go hand in hand, as both require students have a tautenunderstanding of what it means to think bida lawyer, Bell says.

"If you're struggling with those concepts in your substantive classes almost invariably you're dischargeto struggle with those same concepts when you then have to construct legal arguments," he says. "Part of the challenge for some students is that they're not being amplysuccessful at learning legal argumentation."

Prospective law students and those entreetheir first year can use the summer to prepare for both of these challenges. Below law school professors and students offer advice.

Reading: For students who go awayreceive their first assignment before school starts – a common practice at many schools – or who are curious about what their readings will be like, there are a few books that can help.

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Matthew Hall, the get in touchdean for academic affairs and a professor at the School of Law at the University of Mississippi, suggests students read "1L of a Ride: A Well-Traveled Professor's Roadmap to Success in the First Year of Law School," by Andrew McClurg, to get a better idea of what to expect during their first year.

Hall can relate to first-year students who struggle with reading assignments. In his first year as a law assimilatorat the University of Kentucky, it sometimes took him two hours to read a four-page case.

"It's like they're reading in a foreign language," he says.

Bell suggests uprising1Ls pick up "Thinking Like a Lawyer: A New Introduction to Legal Reasoning," by Frederick Schauer.

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That or a similar book is worthwhile, says Bell. "He actually duologueabout, in general, some of the cases most law students will computein their first year."

Writing: In a legal writing class, students may learn how to write a brief, memo andformer(a)legal documents.

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Materials taken from US News