LEGAL DOCUMENTS

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 to write a Legal Essay
• 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.
STRUCTURE AND ORGANISATION
• Title and sub-headings
• Introduction
• Body paragraphs
• Conclusion
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.
Introduction
• A good introduction has four key elements. It provides a
context to your discussion, primarily by articulating the
question that the essay is designed to answer. It presents
your thesis - ie the arguments you will be making. It
clearly sets out the parameters of your discussion.
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
• Is important to set out the purpose of your essay in your
introduction or abstract. 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.
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.
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.
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
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 the “Fundamentals of Writing”
• Eg. The following common pitfalls of legal writing should
be avoided:
▫ Wordiness and redundancy
▫ Foreign and antiquated words and phrases, legalese and
jargon
▫ Overuse of the passive voice and nominalisation
▫ Unduly long sentences and paragraphs
▫ Omitting necessary words and including unnecessary words
OTHER GOOD WRITING NOTES
• 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

• Referencing is an important legal skill. Not only

does it demonstrate the extent of your legal
research but it is vital to get it right in order to
avoid allegations of Academic Honesty or
Plagiarism.
Legal Essay - Checklist
√ Does the title of my essay/paper clearly inform the
reader of what my essay is about?
√ Does my introduction or abstract state the central
question that is being addressed/answered in my essay?
√ Does my introduction give a roadmap for the rest of the
essay, explaining how the paper is structured to answer
the central question posed?
√ Have I used headings and subheadings to signpost the
content of the subsequent section of the essay?
√Does every paragraph in my essay have a topic
sentence?
√Does the content of every paragraph relate to its
topic sentence?
√Do my body paragraphs seamlessly transition
into the next paragraph?
√Does my conclusion summarise the argument
made in my essay, show the reader how I have
addressed the question posed in my
introduction, and contain no new content?
For Editing/Review
√ Have I edited my essay to avoid wordiness and
redundancy?
√ Have I avoided the use of antiquated words such as
‘hereinafter’ or ‘aforementioned’ and have I used Latin
words or phrases only where necessary to convey a
precise legal meaning?
√ Have I edited my essay to eliminate the passive voice?
√ Have I used shorter sentences and paragraphs to convey
clear meaning in my writing?
√
√ Have I retained necessary words such as “the” and “a”,
and omitted unnecessary words that convey no extra
meaning?
√ Have I abided by more general rules of good writing
(gender neutral, formal tone etc)?
√ Are the pages of my essay numbered, and is my essay in
an appropriate and consistent font and clearly formatted
so that headings and paragraphs can be differentiated?
√ Is my essay double-spaced (or 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?
Thank you