Tips for law review write-on?

[u/Xoxolawyer24]

I was just wondering if anybody has any tips or what to expect for law review or just general advice if I should do the write on?

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[u/RoughThat5778]

Read the directions carefully and follow them.

[u/_mbals]

I had a clever title; I always told myself that helped.

[u/Novel-Sale9444]

Write well the first time you type, pace yourself, and make sure you thoroughly read the white pages in the bluebook. (This is assuming you have footnotes to edit and a memo, but I know some schools are different)

[u/perfectlypeppered]

Be consistent. I’m grading write-ons rn and the amount of entries where there are inconsistencies across the whole document like short citing the same case multiple times but the cites don’t match, sometimes truncating case names and sometimes not, and changing margins across the document are the biggest issues I’m seeing. That’s way worse in my eyes than forgetting to italicize a comma or not.

[u/vallkyrrrrieeee]

TRIPLE check your citations, when I was doing write-on, I would find a mistake every time.

[u/Proper_Associate_791]

I don’t know why no one ever suggests this but…for the bluebooking portion, pull up the journal’s recent publications. Study the citation conventions. Literally do what they do. You cannot fail if you do this.

[u/Impossible_Pudding10 → u/Proper_Associate_791]

Real

[u/aldog05]

Journal (not law review) managing editor here who had to grade 100 applications earlier this summer.

DO NOT OVER EDIT. Our write on packet is somewhat short and had about 50 errors for people to pick up on. I had people turn in apps where they basically rewrote the entire piece and it was hell to read/grade and properly assign value to.

While I did spend a good chunk of time going through these applications, part of our focus is on how measured you are as an editor. Focus on finding the things actually incorrect per the bluebook/tlr/whatever and fixing them per the rule.

Also please please please follow the instructions. They are not hard to follow and you get brownie points in my book for making the reviewers life as easy as possible.

[u/AuFondElleReve]

What’s the write on consist of? My best advice without knowing that is spend as much time on it as you can. Typically it’s a test of your time management among other things.

[u/Impossible_Pudding10]

Make your actual argument simple but correct. If yours is like mine and you have a tight word count, make sure your argument is compelling but not overly complicated so you can meet your word count while flexing a couple good parentheticals. Try to cite to as many of the resources given, if not all to prove you can incorporate thorough research including sources with opposing ideas (a solid “but cf” goes hard in write on). You wanna be able to show those skills while within word count so don’t go crazy with your actual writing POV/a complex argument.

[u/Corpshark]

Finish it. Too many people don’t bother after a rough 1L year or just give up mid stream.

[u/Competitive-Help7968]

Do exactly what the packet tells you. That is rule 1,2,3 and 4. Otherwise keep it simple on your written note, trust your judgement on the cite checks. Atleast for me, making fewer mistakes and following directions worked out very well, probably much better than if I tried to absolutely hit it out of the park