Law school grades are a direct reflection of one important skill: the ability to write well.

A student's ability to get high grades is influenced by that student's ability to write well because almost all law school tests are essay exams, not multiple choice or short answer exams.

Highly successful law students exhibit four characteristics regarding their writing. Those writing characteristics are: 1. clarity; 2. conciseness; 3. preciseness; and 4. the ability to adapt their writing to the desires of different professors.

Many law students do not exhibit the writing skills necessary to achieve high grades on exams because of the difference between the writing skills they possess and the writing skills expected of law students. This is in part due to the difference between academic writing and legal writing.

By academic writing I mean the type of writing performed by students throughout their education including their undergraduate education. In academic writing, often the writer (the student) provides the reader (the professor) with as much information as possible regarding the question the writer needs to answer. In this type of writing, whatever the student knows about a subject is provided to the professor without much concern as to how well the answer is organized and the precise relevance of the information being provided.

Legal writing is different. Legal writing is a type of professional writing. By professional writing I mean the type of writing that is done in the professional world. In professional writing the focus is on the reader, not the writer. In professional writing, and legal writing, all that is important is how well the reader is informed.

In a nutshell the two types of writing can be summarized as follows. Academic Writing: how much does the student know. Legal Writing: how well is the reader informed.

In law school, if what the professor reads is not only precise in its answer, but also clear and concise, a student can have points deducted on an exam even if the answer touched on the right information. To help students with this transition to legal writing, I have developed Legal Writing Prep.

Other related articles on this website include Grades-Not All Are Equal and Being Meticulous.

Good luck in law school!

If you have any questions or comments about this article, or want to write your own article about the pre-law or law school process, feel free to contact me.