Learn to Self-Critique During Law School

Learn to Self-Critique During Law School

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How to self-critique

Write a draft, edit it, write another draft, edit it, rinse, repeat. It is sometimes that simple. Just like real lawyers, law students get overwhelmed with work and tend to leave things to the last minute. When you are in a time crunch, however, it’s usually the little things that are overlooked.

I teach appellate advocacy and I give my students a suggested timeline for writing their rough draft over two weeks. Spend the first week writing a draft and spend the second week editing to get all the stylistic and formal elements perfect. I also tell them to print out a copy and read it aloud before handing it in. I still follow this pattern in my real practice (although sometimes I skip reading it aloud). Same thing with blog posts (although Sam is a sneaky-good editor).

In other words, make sure you read something at least twice before considering it “final.” As attorneys progress in their careers they become much better writers and spend less time editing and revising. Young attorneys, however, do not have that same skill level and need to learn how to edit and rework their briefs without someone else’s assistance.

To me, the most important element is giving something multiple looks. When you can step away from something or look at it with fresh eyes—reading it on paper versus a screen—you will see elements that need to be re-worked and you will catch the minor errors.

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