Randel Felismino

Writing a Student Article, June 1998, Journal of Legal Education

Eugene Volokh, WRITING A STUDENT ARTICLE, 48 J. Legal Educ. 247 (1998)
The article Writing a Student Article of Eugene Volokh which was published
in Journal of Legal Education in 1998 introduced essential doctrines in writing a
good article. The article consists of seven parts. These are choosing a claim,
organizing the article, writing, converting practical work into student article,
publishing, publicizing and summary. The article did not only present the basic
concept and doctrines in writing a splendid article. But it also gave the reader tips
from creating a paper up to publicizing the article.
The first part to form a student is article is choosing a claim. A well-written
article has to meet the requirements for patentability. These requirements include a
claim that is novel, nonobvious and useful. It should also be viewed by reader to be
novel, nonobvious and useful. A claim is said to be novel if it is more nuanced. It is
nonobvious if the writer adds twists to the claim in order to avoid obviousness.
Utility means it should be at least professionally valuable for readers.
There are things to avoid in writing a well-written article. These are articles
that show a problem but do not give a solution, case notes, single state-articles,
articles that just explain what the law is, responses to other peoples works and
excessive mushiness.
The second part is organizing the article. These contains four important
portions namely, introduction, explaining background facts and legal doctrines, the
proof of the claim and the conclusion. In the introduction, it is significant to illustrate
to the reader that there is a problem. It must be shown in this part concretely. The
article must also briefly state the claim, shows its novelty, nonobviousness, and
utility. And framing of the issue happens also in this part. In explaining background
facts and legal doctrines, there are two things to avoid. These are summaries of
various precedents in the doctrinal line and minitreaties that go beyond what is
needed to set the stage of the proof. In the proof of the claim, the writer must prove
his point on both doctrinal and policy level. He or she must be concrete. He or she
must focus on the arguments and not on the other side. He or she must know how
to turn the problems in the argument to his or her advantage. The writer must also
look for interesting implications and twists and connect to broader economic
debates. The last portion on this part which is very significant is the conclusion.
The third part is writing. In writing, the article provides many useful tips.
These includes going through many drafts, reviewing the article (if you see no red
marks on a paragraph, go back over it), reading the draft with new eyes (i.e. get a
classmate to read the draft) and finishing the first draft quickly. There things to look
for in writing. These are coherent paragraphs redundancy, surplusage and
platitudes, legalese, throat clearing and proof reading.

Randel Felismino
The fourth part is converting practical work-such as law firm memos into
student article. In this part, extraction of the portions of practical work that would
make valuable addition to the literature is important. Deepening the practical work
by confronting hard questions, broadening the practical work for discussion and
connecting by showing its academic usefulness are all necessary in this part.
The fifth, sixth and seventh parts of the article speak of publishing and
publicizing and summary of the article. Publishing part gives advice on how to find a
publisher. Publicizing is apprising the public about the article. The summary part is
the summation of all the essential tips the author wanted to convey to readers.
Indeed, this article is of great help with my thesis entitled The Legality of
Ukay-Ukay and Its Mysterious Presence in the Philippines. The first part of the
article which speaks about the claim that is novel, not obvious and useful has been
satisfied by my topic. The succeeding parts of the article will serve as my guide for
my thesis. The doctrines and dos and donts from choosing a claim up to publicizing
the article are all essentials for the accomplishment of my thesis.
A well-written article is convincing and persuading. It should be founded on
law, facts or settled jurisprudence to convince the people to accept your thesis. It
should also appeal to emotion to persuade the public to do your suggested solution
proposed in the thesis.