Law School Essays

A Law School Essay is a vital part of the law school admission process. It will serve as your personal statement where you can provide an outline of your strengths and unique skills or abilities. The admissions committee will use your law school essay as a way to know your reasons for going to law school and to get a basic idea of your qualifications. Usually, when it comes down to choosing between 2 or even 200 applicants with similar qualifications, the law school essay helps the admissions committee which one is more deserving of the available slot.

Due to its sheer importance, a law school essay should be outlined prior to writing. Organization is very important in law school and your essay should mirror that same trait. Facts and arguments will always appear stronger when presented in an organized manner. This tends to be easy since most law school applicants already have a sense of organization stemming from previous experience in writing a sociology term paper.

Learn how to reassess your law school essay in parts instead of one big paragraph. Most law school essays contain several arguments and supporting facts and can usually be broken down into several paragraphs containing their own "argument vs. fact" structure. It is important that you place the strongest of your arguments and counter facts at the top, to catch the admissions committee's attention. A law school essay may be academic but that does not necessarily mean it has to be as boring as writing term paper assignments your colleagues rejected.

In regards to your law school essay's readability and being boring, try not to make too many issues or points. Having too many elements to your law school essay could make it look cluttered and disorganized, and would take up a lot of space that could have otherwise been used to provide more factual support. This has the unwanted result of making you look mentally weak, feeble, and indecisive – traits that have no place in a lawyer's character. Learn how to substitute one strong argument for every three weak arguments in your law school essay. Quality should always come first over quantity.

Last but not the least; you have to pay special attention to the overall tone of your law school essay. Similar to oral communication skills, the ability to affect the emotion of the person you're talking to can rest largely on your tone. When it comes to law school essays, you need to find a delicate balance between being forceful and being friendly. Being too forceful in your tone will cause the readers – who reserve the right to refuse or give you admission – to become hostile and try to disagree with you. On the other hand, being too friendly could either make you sound weak and undetermined or give them the idea that you are faking a good attitude. It is important to stay measured and find yourself somewhere in the middle of aggressively strong and passively friendly.