You might have heard that your argument was conclusory, and as exams approach, you might want to know what this means, and how can you fix it.
Typically, if your work suffers from a conclusory-style analysis, you’ll just see the comment “conclusory” on your paper. But there are really two types of “conclusory” statements. It’s important for us to distinguish between them because each presents a different problem for the student and requires a different response.
•The first kind of conclusory statement is one that states a legal conclusion. This occurs when there’s an insufficient legal foundation to provide authority to support the statement.
•The second kind states a factual conclusion. This appears as either a restatement of the facts in the hypothetical or a judgment about what the facts mean without explaining the basis for the judgment.
Typically, however, the lines between the two blur and the sentence is conclusory for one or both reasons. It doesn’t really matter whether it’s one or the other except to recognize why it’s conclusory and to fix it.
For example, does your analysis start with a "yes" or "no" answer? If you hadn’t already figured out, it’s not the conclusion you reach, but the way you get there that’s of interest to your professor. It’s a pretty safe bet your professor isn’t looking for a “yes” or “no” response unless you’re answering a short answer question. Even assuming this problem called for a direct answer, it would be unlikely you’d begin with one. Instead, you’d have to work your way through an analysis of the facts in light of the relevant rule before you could even suggest a possible outcome.
Remember, without the legal definition to provide a context, there’s no legal basis to form your analysis; and second, without applying the facts to show how the law applies, all you have is an assertion. Using facts instead of merely reciting them can be a remedy to this problem. Be aware not to simply make declaratory statements, and also beware - it’s rarely a good idea to begin a sentence with such words as word “clearly” or “obviously.” Typically, the facts in your exams are so purposely ambiguous that nothing is ever “clear.” Chances are if you’re finding clarity, you’re missing the real issue!
Monday, April 15, 2013
Monday, March 18, 2013
Active Reading
When working thought hypothetical problems, multiple choice questions and during exams, you should read the questions "actively" -- but, what does it mean to read actively? “Active reading” means that you search for and identify the following:
The sub-area of law: when you study for a specific class or walk into your exam, you know the subject matter, but there are still wide open categories and you must narrow it down specific sub-topics. A critical component of reading actively is reading in context -- on exams, it’s your job to provide the context.
The legal relationship between the parties: it is important to pay attention to the legal significance of parties’ relationships. The nature of the relationship is often of major significance to a resolution of the problem. Often, professors will use such relationships to test your ability to note distinctions in how the law treats such relationships (you may be dealing with fiduciary duties, different standards of care, and additional obligations imposed by law).
Amounts of money, dates, locations, quantities, and ages: be sure to pay attention to dollar amounts, dates and times, quantities of items, jurisdictional information, and any ages if they appear in the fact pattern. These details can be important for so many reasons: imagine skipping over a time sequence of events in a contractual relationship, then your analysis of the offer, acceptance, and requirements for performance may be way off. Dates also signal statute of limitations problems. Ages are generally tied to a statutory issue (consider statutory rape) or a standard of care (fiduciary duty) while money and location information tend to indicate jurisdictional thresholds. Reading carefully assures that you won’t miss critical signals.
The words “oral” and “written”: these words figure prominently in contract, property, and evidence questions. They signal potential issues with the Statute of Frauds, enforceability of promises, transactions with respect to land, and even admissibility of certain kinds of evidence. Also, note language that signals a writing or oral conversation i.e, a letter, a fax, or a telephone call.
“Active reading” does not include:
Adding facts to the problem: unless you are told to do so specifically by the call of the question, you are never to add your own facts. In most cases, you are given all the facts you need and should use only those facts.
Making assumptions: never make assumptions -- this will lead you astray and into dangerous exam territory. Remember, an assumption is not the same as a logical inference, which often must be made from the facts you’re given. (When working with a set of facts, you may need to draw factual inferences and connect these inferences to the dictates of the rule.)
Never confuse your parties: as you read and before you write, make absolutely certain that you are clear about who is doing what to whom. You don’t want to confuse the actors.
As always, you can refer to Mastering the Law School Exam for further tips on practicing your active reading skills.
The sub-area of law: when you study for a specific class or walk into your exam, you know the subject matter, but there are still wide open categories and you must narrow it down specific sub-topics. A critical component of reading actively is reading in context -- on exams, it’s your job to provide the context.
The legal relationship between the parties: it is important to pay attention to the legal significance of parties’ relationships. The nature of the relationship is often of major significance to a resolution of the problem. Often, professors will use such relationships to test your ability to note distinctions in how the law treats such relationships (you may be dealing with fiduciary duties, different standards of care, and additional obligations imposed by law).
Amounts of money, dates, locations, quantities, and ages: be sure to pay attention to dollar amounts, dates and times, quantities of items, jurisdictional information, and any ages if they appear in the fact pattern. These details can be important for so many reasons: imagine skipping over a time sequence of events in a contractual relationship, then your analysis of the offer, acceptance, and requirements for performance may be way off. Dates also signal statute of limitations problems. Ages are generally tied to a statutory issue (consider statutory rape) or a standard of care (fiduciary duty) while money and location information tend to indicate jurisdictional thresholds. Reading carefully assures that you won’t miss critical signals.
The words “oral” and “written”: these words figure prominently in contract, property, and evidence questions. They signal potential issues with the Statute of Frauds, enforceability of promises, transactions with respect to land, and even admissibility of certain kinds of evidence. Also, note language that signals a writing or oral conversation i.e, a letter, a fax, or a telephone call.
“Active reading” does not include:
Adding facts to the problem: unless you are told to do so specifically by the call of the question, you are never to add your own facts. In most cases, you are given all the facts you need and should use only those facts.
Making assumptions: never make assumptions -- this will lead you astray and into dangerous exam territory. Remember, an assumption is not the same as a logical inference, which often must be made from the facts you’re given. (When working with a set of facts, you may need to draw factual inferences and connect these inferences to the dictates of the rule.)
Never confuse your parties: as you read and before you write, make absolutely certain that you are clear about who is doing what to whom. You don’t want to confuse the actors.
As always, you can refer to Mastering the Law School Exam for further tips on practicing your active reading skills.
Monday, March 11, 2013
Outlining
Several students have come into our offices in the past couple of weeks, and expressed concerns about either being behind with outlines or wanting to know where to begin. Luckily, spring break is just around the corner, and can be a great time to catch up on your classes - and your outlines.
Your outlines are a great place to adequately make sense of the concepts from your respective classes and figure out the relationships between these concepts. It is important to know how to outline, as well as understand what your outline should include. The purpose of your outline is two-fold:
1. Your outline is a vehicle for you to learn the law because it requires you to organize and record the information for your understanding and retrieval. In doing this, you must take apart the individual rules and connect them in a way that reflects how the rules interact as a whole - it is not enough to know the individual rule, but you must also know how the rules work together.
2. It helps you prepare for exams because while writing your outline you have worked through the analysis of issues you are likely to find on your exam. Your outline will contain all you need to know when studying for exams, and in the way you need to know it.
Where do you start?
There are many places to begin - your syllabus will provide a sequence and structure for your outline; likewise, the table of contents in your casebook will help you by dividing topics. These can both be places to start in determining how to sequence your outlines, and what topics need to be covered.
How do you format an outline?
We suggest a regular outline format with a bullet or numerical scheme - it doesn't matter which format you decide; the point is that you will want to rank concepts, and identify main topics and subtopics. Usually, there is a logical sequence to follow in analysing a problem based on the construction of the rule, and this hierarchy should be worked out in your outline (again, your syllabus or the table of contents from your textbook are great places to see the hierarchy; hornbooks may help with subheadings, too).
The real work of outlining comes from synthesizing the material so that you can differentiate between the main topics and the subtopics; and do not be afraid to go outside your casebook and notes for help - hornbooks are a great resource for explaining material.
Once you have your main topics and subtopics, then you can begin to fill in the pieces to provide substance and meaning by filling in the outline with definitions, cases and examples.
Your outlines are a great place to adequately make sense of the concepts from your respective classes and figure out the relationships between these concepts. It is important to know how to outline, as well as understand what your outline should include. The purpose of your outline is two-fold:
1. Your outline is a vehicle for you to learn the law because it requires you to organize and record the information for your understanding and retrieval. In doing this, you must take apart the individual rules and connect them in a way that reflects how the rules interact as a whole - it is not enough to know the individual rule, but you must also know how the rules work together.
2. It helps you prepare for exams because while writing your outline you have worked through the analysis of issues you are likely to find on your exam. Your outline will contain all you need to know when studying for exams, and in the way you need to know it.
Where do you start?
There are many places to begin - your syllabus will provide a sequence and structure for your outline; likewise, the table of contents in your casebook will help you by dividing topics. These can both be places to start in determining how to sequence your outlines, and what topics need to be covered.
How do you format an outline?
We suggest a regular outline format with a bullet or numerical scheme - it doesn't matter which format you decide; the point is that you will want to rank concepts, and identify main topics and subtopics. Usually, there is a logical sequence to follow in analysing a problem based on the construction of the rule, and this hierarchy should be worked out in your outline (again, your syllabus or the table of contents from your textbook are great places to see the hierarchy; hornbooks may help with subheadings, too).
The real work of outlining comes from synthesizing the material so that you can differentiate between the main topics and the subtopics; and do not be afraid to go outside your casebook and notes for help - hornbooks are a great resource for explaining material.
Once you have your main topics and subtopics, then you can begin to fill in the pieces to provide substance and meaning by filling in the outline with definitions, cases and examples.
Monday, March 4, 2013
Studying with Multiple Choice Questions
Last week, we discussed the importance of using hypothetical questions as a study tool. You can also study for your classes by using multiple choice questions. Regardless of whether you are doing hypothetical questions or multiple choice questions, do you know what it means to study from the questions?
Merely going through the process of answering the questions isn't enough and "doing questions" may be a waste of your time. Instead, you should learn how to analyze the question and be able to reason through the problem to arrive at the correct answer.
What does this mean? If you can only partially answer the question, or if you are only getting multiple choice questions incorrect, ask yourself:
What does it mean to only know a portion of the material?
Are the correct answers "right" for the right reason or did you answer for the wrong reason or just get lucky, and do you know why the incorrect answers are wrong?
Did you know the law; were you able to identify the controlling law?
Did you correctly read the facts; did you add facts that threw you off course; did you correctly read the question; and did you apply the correct rule to the facts?
Make sure that you are not just going through the motions, but instead really learning the law as you go along by actively learning from the question. It is not cheating to look up a rule, consult your outline, or read a sample answer to help you build an analysis -- you will learn through the repetition and reinforcement of actively doing the work.
Merely going through the process of answering the questions isn't enough and "doing questions" may be a waste of your time. Instead, you should learn how to analyze the question and be able to reason through the problem to arrive at the correct answer.
What does this mean? If you can only partially answer the question, or if you are only getting multiple choice questions incorrect, ask yourself:
What does it mean to only know a portion of the material?
Are the correct answers "right" for the right reason or did you answer for the wrong reason or just get lucky, and do you know why the incorrect answers are wrong?
Did you know the law; were you able to identify the controlling law?
Did you correctly read the facts; did you add facts that threw you off course; did you correctly read the question; and did you apply the correct rule to the facts?
Make sure that you are not just going through the motions, but instead really learning the law as you go along by actively learning from the question. It is not cheating to look up a rule, consult your outline, or read a sample answer to help you build an analysis -- you will learn through the repetition and reinforcement of actively doing the work.
Monday, February 25, 2013
Using Hypotheticals to Study
Writing out hypotheticals is a great way to study during the course of the semester. Becoming familiar with the structure of essay questions and how to respond will go a long way in helping you prepare for exams.
By now, you know that your professors expect an exam answer that is a well-reasoned and well-organized, and should contain an articulate analysis of the relevant rules of law with respect to the facts. The best way to do get adequate preparation is by writing out and practicing from prior exams – this is why many professors have copies of their old exams on the Library website. You should begin writing sample answers as soon as you have covered enough law to analyze a factual situation.
When asked if it is too soon to start working through hypothicals, remember:
1. Begin working with practice questions as soon as you have covered a topic.
2. Start simple and build to the complex. Begin with single issue problems and work your way to increasingly more complex problems until you have covered every principle that has been covered in your course.
3. Vary the type of essay that you answer when practicing. Be sure to work with both short essays and long, complex fact patterns with multiple issues and parties. Each presents a different challenge in issue spotting and organization.
4. Use exam questions to let you see the relationships between concepts and how topics come together. Hypotheticals can help by showing you the connections in the law.
5. Develop your reading skills as carefully as your writing skills. Pay attention to the exam directions. The only way to know exactly how your professor expects you to address a question comes from experience in reading your professor’s exams.
By now, you know that your professors expect an exam answer that is a well-reasoned and well-organized, and should contain an articulate analysis of the relevant rules of law with respect to the facts. The best way to do get adequate preparation is by writing out and practicing from prior exams – this is why many professors have copies of their old exams on the Library website. You should begin writing sample answers as soon as you have covered enough law to analyze a factual situation.
When asked if it is too soon to start working through hypothicals, remember:
1. Begin working with practice questions as soon as you have covered a topic.
2. Start simple and build to the complex. Begin with single issue problems and work your way to increasingly more complex problems until you have covered every principle that has been covered in your course.
3. Vary the type of essay that you answer when practicing. Be sure to work with both short essays and long, complex fact patterns with multiple issues and parties. Each presents a different challenge in issue spotting and organization.
4. Use exam questions to let you see the relationships between concepts and how topics come together. Hypotheticals can help by showing you the connections in the law.
5. Develop your reading skills as carefully as your writing skills. Pay attention to the exam directions. The only way to know exactly how your professor expects you to address a question comes from experience in reading your professor’s exams.
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
Life After First Year
Now that you are in your second semester, many of you have started this think past your first year of law school. Below, you will find tips from Dean Taylor on life after first year.
As always, we are here to help if you have any questions or concerns.
Life After First Year
By Charlotte D. Taylor, Assistant Dean for Student Services, Touro Law CenterSo what are your steps after the 1st semester of law school? Below are some SUGGESTIONS. Depending on your law school and your needs, you may do more or less than what I indicated below.
1) Assess your game plan - part I - start with grades.
If you did not do as well as you hoped - find out why and how to improve. Meet with your professors, but don't argue over points. Make sure to find out what he or she was looking for, so you can give the professor what she or he wants on the exam this semester. Make sure to reach out to your advisor, Academic Support or Academic Development or Student Services if you need help improving your study skills.
2) Assess your game plan - part II - meet with your career counselor.
Most law students have a goal of a certain job or working in a certain industry, so find out what is recommended or what employers are looking for. Many employers do NOT look at transcripts or grades. Many want a resume, cover letter and a writing sample. Many are concerned with experience, so find out from your career services counselor how you can get experience.
3) Assess your game plan part III - what else is there?
Find out what opportunities exist outside of classes. Research and investigate about clinics, externships, clubs and more. Meet with your faculty advisor if you want to specialize in an area to see what he or she recommends. Meet with the Dean of Students, he or she may be able to help as well.
4) Assess your game plan part IV - the bar exam.
Don't ignore it. Make a plan now to take a prep course or to save money so you don't have to work while studying for the bar. Also, if you are planning to go to another state, find out about completing the bar application for that state.
Once you have all of the facts and research, make a plan for the next two or three years. You should have an idea of what classes you want to take, what you need to do to maintain or improve your grades, and what experience you will get. You should also have a plan for immediately after graduation for studying and taking the bar exam.
Start networking with alumni or guest speakers at the law school and get ready to make a name for yourself because before you know it - it will be time to plan that graduation party.
Wednesday, February 6, 2013
Taking Notes in Class
It is important to continue to take good notes in class. Dean Taylor was a guest blogger last year, and posted her Top Three Do's and Don'ts for Taking Notes - you can access her post here.
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
New Semester
Welcome back to school! We hope you had a great semester, and that your grades reflect how hard you worked last semester.
Unfortunately, not everybody is happy with all of their grades, and often turn to us for advice. Below, you will find a link a prior blog post -- this posts will help you with what to do next:
What to do if you get a Disappointing Grade.
And, as always, our doors are always open to help and advice alone the way.
Unfortunately, not everybody is happy with all of their grades, and often turn to us for advice. Below, you will find a link a prior blog post -- this posts will help you with what to do next:
What to do if you get a Disappointing Grade.
And, as always, our doors are always open to help and advice alone the way.
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