Writing law essays is a critical part of a law student’s university education. More importantly, it is a recurring endeavour - where progress is often expected. Yet, even with this necessity driving students (as well as comprehensive and detailed notes by university lecturers), students often fail to score a high mark at the essay. Therefore, a short guide on how to organize and compose the law essay will follow.

Often, the primary mistake made by students in the composition of this type of essay (or actually any non-fiction essay at all) is that the main question has not been addressed. Before you start writing this type of the essay, you should develop coherent and comprehensive plan. Try to avoid the generalities and stick to specific facts; logical and critical analysis is extremely important in the completion of this type of the essay paper. You should not just provide your reader with the list of facts. It is necessary to analyze them as well. Apart from this, main points and assertions in this type of essay must be backed up by legal facts, e.g. specific laws and cases. Before you start composing your essay, you should be well versed with current legal controversies as this will certainly help you write a solid essay. However, you should never succumb to particular points of view. Instead, you should stress your own. Try not to be afraid even if the opinions and conjectures of modern scholars differ from your own. Always remember that in the legal profession, rules and laws are always followed, but rarely are they liked.

Of course, your law essay is likely to get high marks only if the topic as well as the subject is thoroughly researched and critically analyzed. Understanding the opposing arguments, and focusing on the weak and strong points of those arguments, is a requirement. In developing your arguments, stick to several important elements, the most important of which are a logical and well-structured style and the presentation of strong points in the supporting of your main thesis. In many cases, students try to compose a paper filled with generalities and cliches. Such papers may prove useful as basic guides for the general public, but they would be useless when presented to experienced law tutors. Remember that law tutors are professionals in legal studies and would definitely prefer to receive essays which critically evaluate existing law problems, rather than those that just write about basic facts on well-known legal issues.

The most important thing, however, is to realise that writing a good law essay is no pipe dream. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that all you need to do is to start adhering to the simple to understand principles outlined in this guide, but reading and applying the principles here is at least a good first step.

Note:
While this guide does provide a number of solid points, those points lack real-world examples. For a guide on the subject of law essays, there should have been wide repository of examples to select from. Nevertheless, this article can serve as a basic guide for new law students or as a back-to-basics kind of guide for more experienced law students.

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In my first guide (i.e. Essay Writing Guide 1: Paragraph Structure for Short Essays Part 1), I wrote about two aspects of an essay’s paragraph structure: Writing the topic sentence and elaboration strategies. In Guide 1b (the first extension for Guide 1), I expanded on the elaboration strategies outlined in Guide 1. For this extension, I will be adding more depth and breadth to my explanation on the use of examples in Guide 1b. This will, therefore, primarily help you in the writing of non-fiction short essays (such as for A-Level General Paper or General Studies essays) .

Let us begin.

A good non-fiction short essay should contain specific examples to illustrate the points you are making. So, let us start off with a few useful tips on how to use examples effectively:

• Follow up the general point with examples
• The examples should contain enough details to illustrate the genral point but not too much of other details
• The use of connectors “such as”, “for example”, and “like” is optional. You may want to vary your approach: use connectors in some, but not all cases
• After quoting the examples, sum up the main idea with a short statement (using different phrasing, of course), but this is optional depending on your skill level

Here are some models for the points given above, based on the topic: “Teenage years are the best years of one’s life. Discuss.”

1. • General Point: In countries plagued by wars or natural disasters, teenagers suffer the same as, if not more than, adults.
   • Full Paragraph with Examples: In countries plagued by wars or natural disasters, teenagers suffer the same as, if not more than, adults. In war-torn Somalia, teenagers are forced to become soldiers. Not only do they risk being killed or maimed for life, they are also forced to kill, thus leaving them psychologically scarred for life. In the recent flood in Honduras, teenagers suffered physical danger as well as witnessed the terrible tragedy that occured around them. To these teenagers, teenage years are more nightmarish than enjoyable.
2. • General Point: Not all teenagers find life full of challenges and opportunities.
   • Full Paragraph with Examples: Not all teenagers find life full of challenges and opportunities. For example, teenagers from poor families in India or Africa cannot afford to go to school. Also, in countries closed to the world like North Korea, teenagers may not even be aware of the rapid development that occurs in the outside world, much less be exposed to the opportunities open to teenagers in the rest of the world. For these teenagers, teenage years mean a life of ceaseless toil or regimentation.
3. • General Point: Teenagers may not face the same level of stress as adults but setbacks that seem trivial to adults are sometimes serious enough for teenagers to cause serious harm.
   • Full Paragraph with Examples: Teenagers may not face the same level of stress as adults but setbacks that seem trivial to adults are sometimes serious enough for teenagers to cause serious harm. Poor grads in school may be merely unpleasant to an adult but deadly to a teenager, as demonstrated by the high suicide rates among highly stressed teenagers in Japan. Or, adults might ask: What great harm can teasing cause? Probably nothing to an adult, but to angry teenagers in the Columbine HIgh School, it was enough to provoke a killing spree. These may be extreme examples but the help dispel the myth that teenagers do not experience great stress.

Ok, so those are the useful tips. The next few I would say are critical (even if they might seem obvious to some). The examples used are based on the topic: “To live is to change. Is change always beneficial?”

1. Tip: Make sure the examples used are relevant to the point you are making.
   • Main Point: Recent events have also provided concrete evidence on the benefits of change.
   • Examples with Main Point: Recent events have also provided concrete evidence on the benefits of change. The changes in ancient attitudes between two age-old rivals, Britain and France, led to the completion of the Channel Tunnel, the softening of the stands of Arab nations against Israel led to the miraculous peace agreeement between Israel, Jordan, the PLO, and who knows - Syria, while the complete turnabout change of IRA’s violent tactics led to the ceasefire of the IRA in Ireland.
2. Tip: Make sure the examples are elaborated upon or explained to show the relevance.
   • Main Point: Recent events have also provided concrete evidence on the benefits of change.
   • Examples: The changes in ancient attitudes between two age-old rivals, Britain and France, led to the completion of the Channel Tunnel, the softening of the stands of Arab nations against Israel led to the miraculous peace agreeement between Israel, Jordan, the PLO, and who knows - Syria, while the complete turnabout change of IRA’s violent tactics led to the ceasefire of the IRA in Ireland.
   • Examples with Main Point and Elaboration: Recent events have also provided concrete evidence on the benefits of change. The changes in ancient attitudes between two age-old rivals, Britain and France, led to the completion of the Channel Tunnel, the softening of the stands of Arab nations against Israel led to the miraculous peace agreeement between Israel, Jordan, the PLO, and who knows - Syria, while the complete turnabout change of IRA’s violent tactics led to the ceasefire of the IRA in Ireland. Never mind that all these changes may have arisen out of less noble notions than the desire for peace, for they bring disastrous consequences, as seen n the millions of deaths caused by the IRA and the loyalists of Ireland. They wake us up to the fact that to progress, we need to change any stubborn attitudes that do not apply anymore.
3. Tip: Make sure the examples are linked back to the main point.
   • Main Point: Change is necessary for progress.
   • Examples with Link Back: First and foremost, change is necessary for progress. Who can deny the fact that man’s thirst for innovation, man’s desire for continuous improvement of life is not the main reason for our present welfare? Technology is the fruit of man’s labour in the seeking of change and the upgrading of our lifestyles. The lightbulb, the faucet, the whell - all are inventions out of man’s fertile mind, hungry for change. In this case, it is easy to see the benefits change has brought us - progress into more and better things.

So, that’s about it for this guide on the use of examples for short essays, especially for non-fiction essays. Hopefully, they will help you in your essay writing endeavours.

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