Now that the journal competition is over, I can actually talk about it. Perhaps when I explain what the journal competition is, the need for confidentiality will become apparent.
First, though, is the question: what is a journal? Basically, pretty much every single (if not actually every single) law school has at least one legal journal. The primary journal is the Law Review. I had originally thought that all the journals were equal, and that Law Review was simply the catch-all of the journals. But, as anyone who you paid attention to President Obama’s campaign biography or has been following along with the vetting of Judge Sotomayor probably knows by now, being an editor on Law Review is quite a prestigious position. Certain slots on the Law Review at my school are specifically for students who “grade on;” basically, it’s those dozen or so students with the best grades of the 1Ls, and this is apparently keeping in line with a long-honored tradition of awarding Law Review membership to the most academically successful students. However, there are also other ways to get onto a journal, most notably by “writing on.” More on that infra.
…oh, yes, I am throwing some random Bluebooking in here.
Depending on the school, there can also be other journals; we have quite a few more, which is actually great because, not only does it mean more students get to work on journals, but since many of these other journals are specialized, more students also get the chance to really focus their journal work in a specialized area. For instance, as someone who is immensely interested in international law, I am hoping, most of all, to get on our international legal journal.
So, then, how does one get onto a journal? Well, I can only speak with specificity about my own experience, but from what I have heard, the concept of “writing on” is absolutely common. Here’s how the process went for me: the same day I finished my last final of the semester (and of the year!), I got access to download the journal competition packet, a 100+-page beast of legal entanglements. Inside, there were several cases, some legislative materials (both domestic and international), and a whole bunch of scholarly articles. The assignment was to read all these materials and write an approximately five-page Comment about the topic in question (the Eighth Amendment and the juvenile criminal justice system, in this case). Amazingly, we needn’t have used all the materials, which was a relief, as most of them were incredibly repetitive.
Anyway, the basic point of this writing exercise is two-fold. First, the journal editors want to make sure you can both write coherently and construct a cohesive, well-supported argument. Since all you can use are the materials provided–this is a closed universe sort of thing–everyone is presumably starting at the same level with the same information in an attempt to equalize the playing field. It was difficult not to do outside research or bring in too much outside knowledge, but at the same time, five pages is not a lot of room to get too many points across. As my packet stated in bold letters, the exercise is not meant to be an “issue spotter” like exams normally are, so, while there had to be an argument, it didn’t need to be an argument about everything. That being said, I just need to recommend taking as much time as you can with the Comment. Take a few days off after exams, maybe work on spiffing up your resume, then start writing, as it will take up a lot more time than you think. And since there are so many materials, and so many subjects about which to write, it’s better to be able to parse out the one you feel most strongly about ahead of time instead of discovering it 3/4 of the way through a different argument that you’ve started.
Second, at least for my school, the journal editors also want to see that the applicants can do proper Bluebooking. I will cover Bluebooking in a later post, so suffice it to say now that it is a method of legal citation/medieval torture. Not only did the Bluebooking in our endnotes (oh, yes, those were part of the Comment as well) have to be correct, but there was a whole separate Bluebooking exercise that was, for the most part, insanely convoluted and full of random exceptions that pretty much only someone who read the Blueboom cover-to-cover, which I had to end up doing, could have caught. So, word to the wise: when you have to learn how to Bluebook, learn the bejesus out if to save yourself a lot of trouble in the long-run.
Additionally, and I have no idea if this applies at all schools, we had to submit a resume and a personal statement. It’s as menial as it seems, but at least you can use both to make yourself stand out a little bit more if you haven’t got confidence in your Comment.
So, then what is this all for? What does one exactly do on a journal? I…don’t really know, actually. I know that rising 2Ls have to write a book review for the fall, and that for the most part, the 2L year is full of proofreading and cite-checking with that accursed Bluebook. Hopefully, I will get on a journal, so I’ll be able to actually say what it is the staff editors do. Until then, all I can say is: it better be worth it, because I was definitely so delusional towards the end of the competition that I actually voluntarily re-watched an old Oprah episode just to re-learn Suze Orman’s tips for cutting down debt.
1496 words, or roughly the length of my sanity
31 05 2009Now that the journal competition is over, I can actually talk about it. Perhaps when I explain what the journal competition is, the need for confidentiality will become apparent.
First, though, is the question: what is a journal? Basically, pretty much every single (if not actually every single) law school has at least one legal journal. The primary journal is the Law Review. I had originally thought that all the journals were equal, and that Law Review was simply the catch-all of the journals. But, as anyone who you paid attention to President Obama’s campaign biography or has been following along with the vetting of Judge Sotomayor probably knows by now, being an editor on Law Review is quite a prestigious position. Certain slots on the Law Review at my school are specifically for students who “grade on;” basically, it’s those dozen or so students with the best grades of the 1Ls, and this is apparently keeping in line with a long-honored tradition of awarding Law Review membership to the most academically successful students. However, there are also other ways to get onto a journal, most notably by “writing on.” More on that infra.
…oh, yes, I am throwing some random Bluebooking in here.
Depending on the school, there can also be other journals; we have quite a few more, which is actually great because, not only does it mean more students get to work on journals, but since many of these other journals are specialized, more students also get the chance to really focus their journal work in a specialized area. For instance, as someone who is immensely interested in international law, I am hoping, most of all, to get on our international legal journal.
So, then, how does one get onto a journal? Well, I can only speak with specificity about my own experience, but from what I have heard, the concept of “writing on” is absolutely common. Here’s how the process went for me: the same day I finished my last final of the semester (and of the year!), I got access to download the journal competition packet, a 100+-page beast of legal entanglements. Inside, there were several cases, some legislative materials (both domestic and international), and a whole bunch of scholarly articles. The assignment was to read all these materials and write an approximately five-page Comment about the topic in question (the Eighth Amendment and the juvenile criminal justice system, in this case). Amazingly, we needn’t have used all the materials, which was a relief, as most of them were incredibly repetitive.
Anyway, the basic point of this writing exercise is two-fold. First, the journal editors want to make sure you can both write coherently and construct a cohesive, well-supported argument. Since all you can use are the materials provided–this is a closed universe sort of thing–everyone is presumably starting at the same level with the same information in an attempt to equalize the playing field. It was difficult not to do outside research or bring in too much outside knowledge, but at the same time, five pages is not a lot of room to get too many points across. As my packet stated in bold letters, the exercise is not meant to be an “issue spotter” like exams normally are, so, while there had to be an argument, it didn’t need to be an argument about everything. That being said, I just need to recommend taking as much time as you can with the Comment. Take a few days off after exams, maybe work on spiffing up your resume, then start writing, as it will take up a lot more time than you think. And since there are so many materials, and so many subjects about which to write, it’s better to be able to parse out the one you feel most strongly about ahead of time instead of discovering it 3/4 of the way through a different argument that you’ve started.
Second, at least for my school, the journal editors also want to see that the applicants can do proper Bluebooking. I will cover Bluebooking in a later post, so suffice it to say now that it is a method of legal citation/medieval torture. Not only did the Bluebooking in our endnotes (oh, yes, those were part of the Comment as well) have to be correct, but there was a whole separate Bluebooking exercise that was, for the most part, insanely convoluted and full of random exceptions that pretty much only someone who read the Blueboom cover-to-cover, which I had to end up doing, could have caught. So, word to the wise: when you have to learn how to Bluebook, learn the bejesus out if to save yourself a lot of trouble in the long-run.
Additionally, and I have no idea if this applies at all schools, we had to submit a resume and a personal statement. It’s as menial as it seems, but at least you can use both to make yourself stand out a little bit more if you haven’t got confidence in your Comment.
So, then what is this all for? What does one exactly do on a journal? I…don’t really know, actually. I know that rising 2Ls have to write a book review for the fall, and that for the most part, the 2L year is full of proofreading and cite-checking with that accursed Bluebook. Hopefully, I will get on a journal, so I’ll be able to actually say what it is the staff editors do. Until then, all I can say is: it better be worth it, because I was definitely so delusional towards the end of the competition that I actually voluntarily re-watched an old Oprah episode just to re-learn Suze Orman’s tips for cutting down debt.
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Tags: Bluebooking, comment, law journal
Categories : 1L, Extracurriculars, Legal Writing