LEGAL ESSAYS

What is a legal essay?

An essay is a piece of writing that objectively and critically explores, analyses or
evaluates a particular issue or area of the law. Good essays contain balanced
analysis, but they are also persuasive, using supported arguments to guide the
reader to a conclusion.

HOW DO I WRITE A LEGAL ESSAY?

Although good legal essays come in a variety of shapes, sizes and forms, there
are a number of key requirements that should be considered. An essay should
answer the question posed in a critical way, and not be a mere description of a
legal problem. Essays must synthesise and reference material, but also express
the writer’s own voice. Assertions should be supported with evidence and logical
explanations. As always, writing should be clear, accurate, succinct, formal, and
use plain English, while abiding by appropriate referencing
requirements and academic honesty.

Legal essays are always marked against the assessment grading guidelines.

Structure and Organisation

How you structure and organise your essay is just as important as the research
you have done. If your essay does not ‘flow’ or your material is presented in a
haphazard fashion, not even exhaustive research will improve your grade.

Structure and Organisation has been outlined to assist in your essay writing.

 Title and sub-headings

 Introduction
 Body paragraphs
 Conclusion

1. Title and sub-headings

The title of your essay is what grabs the reader first. It should clearly inform the
reader of the essay’s purpose or central thesis, providing a compelling reason to
read the paper.
Good titles can be those that are straightforward, clearly identifying the legal
question using terminology familiar to a particular audience.

Sometimes a more lyrical approach is appropriate to create interest or appeal to

a more general audience.

As well as setting out a good structure in the introduction, it is useful, along the
way, to further signpost your argument by using subheadings. These can serve
to explaining what’s to come in each specific section of the essay.

This makes the separate points easy to identify and allows the reader to track the
progress of the argument.

2. Introduction
A good introduction has four key elements. (1) It provides a context to your
discussion, primarily by articulating the question that the essay is designed to
answer. (2) It presents your thesis - ie the arguments you will be making. (3) It
clearly sets out the parameters of your discussion. (4) Finally, it offers a brief
outline of the structure of your essay - ‘signposting’ or guiding the reader through
your various arguments. In addition, it is possible in an introduction to indicate
what ‘answer’ or conclusion the essay will put forward.
 State the question the essay is designed to answer
 Sign-posting – guiding your reader

State the question the essay is designed to answer

Is important to set out the purpose of your essay in your introduction or abstract.
This is so even when an essay topic has been prescribed for an assignment and
you note on a cover sheet which question you’re addressing. Is the purpose to
answer a question? If so, set out that question in the introduction and explain
how you propose to answer it.

Sometimes an essay may not be answering a question. Instead, it may be

something like a review of someone else’s work. Whether your essay is
answering a question, or doing something else like reviewing another’s work, the
important thing is to make the ‘terms of your inquiry’ clear for your reader. By
making the purpose of your essay clear in your introduction you help your reader
to follow your argument.
Sign-posting – guiding your reader
A hallmark of good essays is that they set out clearly in their introduction or
abstract not only what question they are addressing, or what their purpose is, but
also how it is they will answer the question posed. By putting in your introduction
a description of how the essay will proceed, you alert readers to what to expect,
and introduce them to the contours of the argument to come.

3. Body Paragraphs
The body paragraphs of an essay provide the context and analysis of your legal
issue or situation. You will need to demonstrate that you have a sound
understanding of the topic being discussed, and your arguments should be
presented clearly and persuasively. Alternative positions or sides to the
arguments you present should not be ignored - these may offer a rich
counterpoint to your own viewpoint. They also indicate to the marker that you
have considered the various contested aspects of an issue but have nonetheless
come to a reasoned position pursuing a particular argument. There are various
ways in which this analysis can be organised. You should experiment with
different structures as you develop your ideas and choose a structure that
supports your analysis. This section provides suggestions about how to guide
your reader through the body of your essay.
 Topic sentence
 Transitions and paragraph conclusions

Topic sentence
It is important to indicate at the beginning of a paragraph the focus of the
paragraph. This is achieved by using a topic sentence or sentences. As well as
signposting to the reader what the paragraph is about, a topic sentence is a
useful device for the writer to assess whether all the content in the paragraph is
relevant.

Topic sentences can also be used to summarise a general position reflected in

academic commentary, with the following paragraph going on to discuss the
specific approaches taken or the finer details of divergence.

Transitions and paragraph conclusions

Body paragraphs may canvass a variety of subjects, but the transitions between
them should be seamless. This will prevent the essay from appearing disjointed.
A good writer should not need to use specific transition words, but there are
some that can be used for this purpose. For example, if a paragraph furthers a
point previously made, transition words or phrases such as ‘moreover’ or ‘in
addition’ may be useful; if the paragraph covers different ground, or poses the
alternative argument, ‘however’ or ‘in contrast’ may be more appropriate. Each
paragraph should also ‘conclude’, in a way related to the original question or
topic posed in the paragraph’s topic sentence.

4. Conclusion
Your conclusion must answer the question posed in your introduction. It should
contain no new material and be relatively short when compared to the rest of the
essay. Essentially, it reiterates the main argument you have proposed.

Your conclusion is your last opportunity to remind the reader what your essay set
out to do, and how you accomplished it. Your conclusion should, therefore, revisit
the question posed, and, briefly, summarise how you answered it. Whereas your
introduction will set out what you proposed to do or show, your conclusion will
talk of what you did achieve through the course of your essay.

Writing style, Tone and Purpose

As with all pieces of work, legal essays should follow the advice provided
in Fundamentals of Writing. This provides guidance on writing in plain English
and avoiding some of the common traps fallen into by law students eg. redundant
words, legalese and archaic language, etc…

GENERAL ELEMENTS OF GOOD WRITING

Before looking at specific genres of legal writing, it is helpful to remember the ‘big
picture’ in determining the characteristics of good legal writing. Generally, good
‘legal’ writing is simply good writing. Good writing is clear (well structured, with
smooth transitions and appropriate vocabulary), accessible (written in plain
English, engaging), and attentive to purpose and audience.

In law, characteristics particularly valued include accuracy, precision,

succinctness, consistency, formality, and the appropriate use of primary and
secondary materials.
OTHER GOOD WRITING NOTES
While there are particular bad writing habits that law students can fall into, the
following areas of ‘good writing’ are also worth paying attention to:
 Establishing your own ‘voice’ in expressing your argument
 Writing in a gender neutral fashion
 Taking care with grammar and sophisticated vocabulary
 Maintaining a consistent, formal tone

Use of Authority: Substantiation, Quotations and

Citations

Avoiding Plagiarism

ACADEMIC DISHONESTY
The term academic dishonesty is broadly defined as obtaining an advantage by
dishonest or unfair means, which covers a variety of situations. This includes:

 Cheating, e.g. bringing unauthorised material into an exam; copying from another
student
 Submitting misleading material, e.g. falsifying a word count, submitting different
versions of an assessment in electronic and hard copy
 Submitting your own work which has previously been submitted for assessment
in another unit of study
 Submitting a non-genuine application for special consideration or other
applications requiring an academic decision
 Engaging someone else to assist with or complete your work
 Colluding with another student.

Collusion is cooperation with others in an assessment task in a manner that goes

beyond 'legitimate co-operation'. "Co-operation is not legitimate if it unfairly
advantages a student or group of students over others." As a general principle
you should not discuss specific details of any assessment task with another
person unless stated otherwise in the assessment instructions. Nor should you
trade or share notes on an assessment task, or sections or drafts of an
assessment submission. If you have any doubts about whether you are allowed
to cooperate on an assessment you should discuss this with the lecturer/unit
coordinator before engaging in any cooperative activity.
Knowingly assisting another student to engage in academic dishonesty is also
regarded as academic dishonesty.

LEGAL ESSAY CHECKLIST

This section summarises the necessary elements of a good legal essay.
It may be useful to print off this checklist (pdf) to determine whether your work
covers all the necessary elements.

Structure and Organisation

Does the title of my essay/paper clearly inform the reader of what my
essay is about? Yes
For more information, please visit Title and sub-headings No

Does my introduction or abstract state the central question that is

being addressed/answered in my essay? Yes
For more information, please visit State the question the essay is No
designed to answer
Does my introduction give a roadmap for the rest of the essay,
explaining how the paper is structured to answer the central question Yes
posed? No
For more information, please visit Sign-posting – guiding your reader
Have I used headings and subheadings to signpost the content of the
subsequent section of the essay? Yes
For more information, please visit Title and sub-headings No

Does every paragraph in my essay have a topic sentence? Does the

content of every paragraph relate to its topic sentence? Yes
For more information, please visit Topic sentence No

Do my body paragraphs seamlessly transition into the next

paragraph? Yes
For more information, please visit Transitions and paragraph No
conclusions
Does my conclusion summarise the argument made in my essay,
show the reader how I have addressed the question posed in my Yes
introduction, and contain no new content? No
For more information, please visit Conclusion
General elements of good writing, presentation and referencing
Have I edited my essay to avoid wordiness and redundancy?
For more information, please visit Wordiness and redundancy Yes
No

Have I avoided the use of antiquated words such as ‘hereinafter’ or

‘aforementioned’ and have I used Latin words or phrases only where Yes
necessary to convey a precise legal meaning? No
For more information, please visit Legalese – antiquated words and
jargon
Have I edited my essay to eliminate the passive voice?
For more information, please visit Overuse of the passive voice and Yes
nominalisation No

Have I used shorter sentences and paragraphs to convey clear

meaning in my writing? Yes
For more information, please visit Unduly long sentences and No
paragraphs
Have I retained necessary words such as “the” and “a”, and omitted
unnecessary words that convey no extra meaning? Yes
For more information, please visit Omitting necessary words, No
including unnecessary words
Have I abided by more general rules of good writing (gender neutral,
formal tone etc)? Yes
For more information, please visit Other general good writing skills No

Are the pages of my essay numbered, and is my essay in an Yes

appropriate and consistent font and clearly formatted so that headings
and paragraphs can be differentiated? Is my essay double-spaced (or No
otherwise formatted in the way required by the given assessment
task)?

Have I properly referenced my work to acknowledge the source of

words and ideas? Yes
For more information, please visit Academic dishonesty and No
plagiarism