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DoNotesMatter 3 - 23 Apr 2010 - Main.DavidGoldin
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| | We're encouraged to write notes, but do they really do anything worthwhile? Granted, they will have an effect on the note writer herself, if at all taken seriously writing a rather large paper ought to improve writing and organization skills along with research. But, on a larger scale, what do student-written notes matter? Most of the time a student is not going to make some kind of incredible discovery or develop some original theory that shakes things up; in fact, from what I've heard (speaking with random 3Ls) most folks simply write about circuit splits or small points of law that professors don't bother with (feel is beneath them). Additionally, I've heard a decent amount of speak against the benefit of notes from folks in our class - something along the lines of why write a note about an issue that will inevitably be resolved over time. An example was used comparing note-writing about an incorrect point of law to writing about taking out the garbage, why write about something that just happens (or, I suppose, why write about something instead of just doing it)?
I put some thought in on this, and I figured I'd share it. That's what the wiki is for, right? | | |
-- NathanStopper - 23 Apr 2010 | |
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> | From what I understand from the 2Ls that I've spoken to, the value in writing a note (if you do it well) is that it forces you to thoroughly examine a very specific topic and come up with a well thought out piece of work discussing it. It forces you to think about a "real world" problem and really look at the details.
The vast majority of the papers that we have written won't ever get published. The 3 essays that I wrote in Mr. Bresnahan's 9th grade English class on why Catcher in the Rye was a good book were pure crap. They didn't assert anything groundbreaking, were written in mediocre English and likely didn't even make much sense. That said, they were valuable to me. They forced me to write.
One of the best ways to learn to write well is to write a lot and get feedback. Unfortunately, law school is only 3 years long and we do little writing the first year (2 memos and a brief). The more experience we can get the better, and writing a note is yet another chance to gain experience with legal writing.
Perhaps this is a naive point of view (it may be useless), but this is why I think notes can be valuable, and this is why I think we have the Major and Minor Writing Credit requirements.
-- DavidGoldin - 23 Apr 2010 | | | |
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