Skills Guide

Skills guide
A. Flanagan
This study guide was prepared for the University of London by:
A. Flanagan, BA (St. Johns, NY), JD (Brooklyn, NY), LLM (Lond), admitted to New York State Bar.
Now at Queen Mary, Law Faculty, University of London.
This is one of a series of study guides published by the University. We regret that the
author is unable to enter into any correspondence relating to, or arising from, the guide.
If you have any comments on this study guide, favourable or unfavourable, please use the
form at the back of this guide.
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Published by the University of London Press
University of London 2005
Printed by Central Printing Service, University of London
All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced in any form, or by any means,
without permission in writing from the publisher.
Contents: part 1
Introduction to the study guide
Issues and concerns for distance learners
10
Chapter 1
Part 1: Introduction
13
Chapter 2
Using your time effectively
15
2.1
Identifying how you use your time now
15
2.2
Changing the way you use your time
16
2.3
Establish a study routine
17
Reading efficiently
21
3.1
Attributes of reading
21
3.2
Techniques for efficient reading
22
3.3
Strategies for reading academic texts
25
Summarising and effective notetaking
29
4.1
Assessing the effectiveness of your notes
29
4.2
Formats for notetaking
30
4.3
Some pointers for helpful notes
32
Researching online and using online resources
35
5.1
The role of electronic legal resources
35
5.2
The woes of the web
36
5.3
Lawful and ethical use of works made available online
37
5.4
Using the web
38
5.5
Subscription databases
38
5.6
Some online legal resources
40
1.1
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Contents: part 2
Chapter 1
55
Chapter 2
Legal vocabulary
57
Chapter 3
Essay process and planning
59
3.1
Essay pre-writing
59
3.2
Writing
61
3.3
Revising and editing
62
3.4
Referencing
62
3.5
Essay planning and time management
63
The structure of an essay
65
4.1
Essay structure
66
4.2
Other essay types
70
Writing paragraphs
71
5.1
Topic sentences
71
5.2
Supporting sentences
73
5.3
Concluding sentences
74
5.4
The flow of information
74
5.5
Revising paragraphs
75
Attributes of academic and professional writing
77
6.1
Six attributes of scholarly writing
77
6.2
Achieving the attributes
78
Referencing and avoiding plagiarism
89
7.1
What is plagiarism?
89
7.2
How to avoid plagiarism
91
7.3
Referencing
92
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Contents: part 3
Chapter 1
105
Chapter 2
Revision and exam preparation
107
Revision process
108
Writing an examination paper
113
3.1
Exam realities
113
3.2
Organised presentation
114
3.3
Readability
115
3.4
Relevance
115
3.5
Apply the course ideas and issues raised
117
3.6
Use clear, objective arguments/support your arguments
2.1
Chapter 3
with specific sources
117
3.7
Use examples and illustrations from deep specific levels
118
3.8
Are not merely descriptive
119
3.9
In the exam
119
Managing examination stress
123
4.1
What is stress?
123
4.2
Assessing whether your stress levels are a problem
124
4.3
Techniques for managing stress
124
Chapter 4
Notes
Part 1: Study skills
Contents: part 1
Chapter 1
11
Chapter 2
Using your time effectively
13
2.1
13
2.2
14
2.3
15
Reading efficiently
19
3.1
19
3.2
20
3.3
23
Summarising and effective notetaking
27
4.1
27
4.2
28
4.3
30
Researching online and using online resources
33
5.1
33
5.2
The woes of the web
34
5.3
Lawful and ethical use of works made available online
35
5.4
Using the web
36
5.5
36
5.6
38
1.1
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Notes
Introduction
You have chosen to do a postgraduate degree in law on the
University of London LLM course for External students. While the
external aspect creates some special issues for you to be aware of
and address (and we will discuss this in more detail below),
learning law, as with any other academic subject, involves a threestage process:
learning new material
revising
practicing for the assessment format.
Each of these processes involves not only legal study, but also
writing and exam-taking skills. It is for this reason that this skills
guide is divided into three parts:
Part 1: Study skills
Part 2: Legal English
Part 3: Examination skills.
The above three processes also involve some important
organisational skills. This is especially critical if you are also
working while studying, whether in practice or some other type of
job, including in the home as a full-time parent or homemaker. It is
for this reason that these guides include such topics as time
management. You will need to get things done as efficiently as
possible while at the same time making sure that you optimise your
learning and writing abilities.
It may be that you have not studied in a while. Perhaps you have
never formally done a legal degree or studied for one in English or
within another legal systems framework. So, while you may be a
skilled professional in your area of expertise, you may still need to
refresh or re-tool some of the study skills that got you there. This
might be especially true if you never really developed excellent
study skills in the first place. So, it is for this reason that we suggest
you familiarise yourself with the various parts of this skills guide
and avail yourself of as much of it as you decide is needed.
Skills inventory assessment exercise

To decide whether and in which skills areas you might need help,
you might find it helpful to work your way through a short study
skills inventory assessment exercise from the Virginia Polytechnic
Institute and State University, available online at:
http://www.ucc.vt.edu/stdysk/stdyhlp.html
Skills guide: part 1
This assessment tool provides a baseline for identifying whether

you need help in any of the following areas:
time management
concentration
notetaking
reading comprehension
test preparation and test taking
reading speed
writing skills
test anxiety management.
It is a private exercise based on your perceptions of your own
experience, but may help you identify areas that may need work.
Many of those areas are covered in this guide. Other valuable
resources are pointed out for those who wish additional materials.
Not all of these will be precisely geared to you, as an adult distance
learner who is likely already a professional with a full-time job and
possibly the demand of children and a spouse and all those other
persons and things that make demands on your time. However,
rather than discounting what does not apply, look to see what is
relevant.
1.1

You are clearly an intelligent, motivated person, having chosen to
do an advanced legal degree by distance learning. That takes
initiative! This is very good since it is considered that selfmotivation and self-direction are important characteristics for
successful distance learning. Why is that?
Well, even with an excellent distance learning programme and
materials, there is just not the same direct feedback that you get
when, for example, you see a teacher nod in response to a very
good question that you have asked or the correct answer that you
have figured out. So, you will need to provide your own feedback
and reinforcements beyond that provided in the materials. This
might be the pleasure of study for its own sake, the enjoyment of
the discipline of a routine you set for yourself, the fact that this is
time set aside just for you, or possibly the future rewards that an
LLM from the University of London for External students will
provide.
It might be some combination of these factors or others which only
you can know. Whatever these drivers are, it might be a good idea
to spend some time thinking about them so that you can draw on
them when you need to.
Distance learning often does not have a class schedule to motivate
you to attend or lectures that you must be prepared for, you need
to create your own self-direction and discipline. For you to succeed
over the long haul, you will need to have the discipline to manage
effectively that precious commodity: time and also to train your
mind again to study new things.
Distance learning may require you to approximate environments or
behaviours that in a traditional programme would help to provide
the mental and physical switches to student. However, you will
10
Chapter 1: Introduction to the study guides
likely assume this status in or near the same places that you play
other roles, such as parent, spouse, employee etc.
The recommendations made here, such as having a regular study
time and place, preferably the library, are good ones and likely to
be found in any student learning guide worth its salt. On the other
hand, however, one of the key advantages of distance learning may
be the very lack of classroom structure and the flexibility that such
autonomy in learning can mean. You can fit it into your life in
many different ways. However, to do this, you need to identify your
own learning styles and figure out your best learning strategies to
take advantage of the flexibility.
For example, if you learn best by listening, perhaps you can record
some of your assigned materials and then listen to them in the car
or on the bus on the way to work. If you break your materials down
to timed tasks, then you can have a file with you containing work
that can be done in all available time frames, such as the notes that
you took on the assigned chapter that can be reviewed during 15
minutes with coffee in the morning at your desk or any time you
have to wait, such as reviewing, or the law review article, case or
statute or part of a chapter that can be read in the time remaining
on your lunch hour after you have eaten and had a short break, or
that work which best utilises the four-hour session that you have
set aside on every Sunday morning, such as preparing notes on the
chapter or a law review article that you have read.
As you can see, distance learning and its flexibilities requires some
thought as to your goals and motivations, an assessment of what
kind of learner you are as well as some overall advanced planning
for the course and each part of it so that, for example, you have a
copy of the chapter section or statute with you so that you do not
have to drag the book along. Your notes must be effective and well
done so that you can study from them and in a format that takes
the wear and tear of portability, perhaps on index cards that can be
added to or reordered as necessary.
To assist you in these further initial assessments, you might find
very valuable a Power Point presentation called: Becoming a
master student: first steps by Dave Ellis. Although intended to
accompany his book Becoming a master student (Houghton
Mifflin, tenth edition), the slides themselves are interesting and
thought provoking. They are available at:
http://college.hmco.com/collegesurvival/ellis/master_student/10e
/instructors/powerpoints.html
Again, everything here might not have relevance or interest you.
But if you are really honest with yourself, you might conclude that
a written, truthful assessment of what you really want to change or
achieve here is the first step to doing it. A personal mission (here
intention) statement with honest and clear goals (here
commitments) and a time and action plan (here timelines) and
assessment measures (here observable criteria) of achievement.
Those in business might recognise the value of such a model that
also includes identifiable weaknesses or risks, including likely ways
that you can self-sabotage your success, or things that depend on
others as well as criteria for evaluating the discovery wheel that it
uses encompasses topics that are addressed in the other sets of
slides that are also available at that same address.
11
Finally, it addresses different modes of learning and multiple types

of intelligence and asks you to evaluate where you fit. That is not a
value judgment but rather merely recognition of where you are
along the continuum which may affect how and what you learn in
the process. The types of intelligence correspond to various ways of
taking in information, with some students more visual or verbal in
their processing that may suggest ways to optimise learning.
You can always order the book, if you find it valuable but need
more specific guidance. So, take the first steps here and get the
most from your LLM for External students.
Enjoy your studies!
12
Chapter 1: Part 1: introduction
Introduction
Having now decided to pursue an LLM for External students on the
University of London programme, you may now need to think
practically what it means to be a student again and to study. A
good place to start this process may be with an examination of the
word itself: study. The Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary notes
that this word likely comes from the Latin studere meaning to
devote oneself. This will likely be partly true of your life over the
next two years or so, as you will need to dedicate a certain amount
of your time and focus to the study of law.
Perhaps the most applicable current meanings, however, are the
following given in that same dictionary:
2 a: application of the mental faculties to the acquisition of
knowledge <years of study> b: such application in a particular field
or to a specific subject <the study of Latin> c: careful or extended
consideration <the proposal is under study> d (1): a careful
examination or analysis of a phenomenon, development, or
question.
You certainly will need to apply your mental faculties to the

acquisition of specialist legal knowledge, often requiring extended
consideration of concepts and examination of legal trends or
developments in your chosen areas of study and at the level of
Master of Laws.
To do so, you will need the ability to read large amounts of
materials efficiently and critically and to distil the information
contained in these readings and integrate it with other things you
have read. This will require you further to be focused, organised
and to have adequate time. The chapters in this part are addressed
to the development of such skills.
Chapter 2: Using your time effectively explores issues surrounding
the effective management of your time. It provides you with some
basic resources to begin applying time-management principles in
your life, including some assessment tools for evaluating how you
currently use your time and some tips for changing that allocation
of this precious resource. If you are concerned how you will
manage to fit in your study with the other things in your life such
as your job and your family demands, you should give serious
attention to this chapter.
Chapter 3: Reading efficiently addresses how to read efficiently and
effectively. We know that you know how to read, or you would not
be in this programme in the first place. The focus here is rather on
how to read suitably for each purpose and which requires you to
13
think about what that purpose is, enabling you then to more readily
achieve that objective.
It also covers how to get the most out of reading academic works
and to analyse the content of the readings critically so that you can
not only say what it is that you have read but can analyse how well
it has presented its ideas and whether they are supported.
Once you have distilled the reading and its ideas, you will likely
need a methodical way to help you retain that information and
access it in a way that will enable you to use it for revision or to use
in your writing. Chapter 4: Summarising and effective notetaking
discusses how to summarise information from your readings and to
take notes effectively in order to be able to do so. It contains a
discussion of several of types of note-taking which may prompt you
to think about your current style and whether you ought to try a
new one, including techniques that may be new to you such as
concept or mind mapping.
Over the last few years, the amount of legal information and
resources available online has exploded, making legal research
possible often without having to go physically to the library. There
are some considerations about judicious use of online resources.
These are addressed in chapter 5. It also discusses some of the
subscription legal databases that may be made available to you as a
student of the University of London, including their tutorials on
how to use them well so that you can find what you are looking for.
The ease of ability to copy and use online works gives rise to
concerns about academic integrity. Chapter 5: Researching online
and using online resources notes some issues related to this and
points to guidelines that may help you not to run foul of what is
considered plagiarism. Finally, it gives you an extensive list of
current links to online resources that you may find helpful, legal
and otherwise. You might want to bookmark in your browser any of
these that you think you might be likely to use for ready access. You
may need to update these links over time.
As was suggested at the start of this introduction, you should
identify the study skills areas that are of interest to you or where
you think you should improve. Take from the chapters in this first
part and the ideas or resources that will work for you.
14
Chapter 2: Using your time effectively
Introduction
No one has enough time, but everyone has all there is. Anonymous
Some people use time better than others. We have already

discussed the importance of good time-management skills to
successful students and their critical importance to distancelearning students. A distance-learning course of study is different
from other forms of work or study in one major way: here while
there are recommended numbers of hours, there are no set working
hours for an academic course. No one will tell you what to do, or
when to do it. Your own scheduling discipline and skills will be the
key to success here.
This chapter will focus on some suggestions and resources for
assisting you to do that. Effective time management requires you to
look at how you currently use your time, to identify time wasters or
things (or people) that manage your time instead of you. It then
requires a conscious process for change to alter those scenarios
which control your time (since it is likely that you cannot change
the people in your life, and it would happen with other people
anyway as it is you, and not them) or to build in some structured
time for learning that becomes a routine.
You can make as few or as sweeping changes as you need or wish.
The result must merely be that you have enough time to allocate to
studying successfully, a goal that could be different for each person.
2.1

You need to build in enough time each week to study and still have
enough time to do what you need to do in the rest of your busy life.
If you were going to build a cabinet to fit in all the things you own,
one of the first things you would do is measure what space this
takes up so that you could figure out the size of cabinet you need.
This analogy does not exactly work since the time cabinet of your
life only has 168 hours a week in it. So, you have to figure out what
and how you can fit into this delimited amount. The idea of
measuring what currently goes into that 168 hours is still good. You
need to identify where you can fit in those additional study hours
and perhaps what you need to not do in order to be able to do that.
The following web sites each have a time allocation assessment tool
that may prove valuable in this regard. Check out which works for
you.
15
Developing a schedule: http://www.studygs.net/schedule/

Where does time go?:
http://www.ucc.vt.edu/stdysk/TMInteractive.html
Activity logs:
http://www.psychwww.com/mtsite/tmasswdn.html (This
technique allows you to see where your time really goes.)
2.2

Once you have seen where your time goes, you may wish to figure
out some ways to fit more in or how to better use your time or
change the allocation of time to certain things. There are timemanagement techniques that focus on identifying and establishing
priorities so that you do first what you must do (priority A) and
leave those tasks that are flexible in their time frames or that are
not that important (priority C) to another time. Often, these lower
priority tasks are those that we engage in to avoid doing some of
the priority A tasks or that we find our schedule filled up with so
that there is not enough time to do the more important jobs and do
them well.
Also, your time-use assessment may have indicated that much of
your time is not allocated by self-direction, but by interruptions
imposed on you: a phone call, someone sticking their head in your
office or asking you to drive them to football practice. Changing the
level of your work to priority A tasks and making more of your
time self-directed may be what you need to gain control over what
you must do in a week and still have time left for other things.
This may involve identifying when you work at your best, so that
you make sure that you do only priority A tasks, which likely
include study, during that time. To ensure that you only do this
self-directed priority A work, and not have your peak performance
time whittled away by other less important things, it may be
necessary to create mechanisms to protect it.
For example, you might have to put a sign on your door that you
need to work uninterrupted for the next two hours and that anyone
who needs to talk to you should sign their names and you will get
back to them after that time. If you then do what you say, people
will be trained to respect your time knowing that it is just a few
hours until they get what they need from you. Similarly, let the
phone calls go to voice mail with a message as to when you will call
people back.
While there will always be interruptions that you must accept, such
techniques can serve to minimise them.
The following are good time-management resources that can be
used for both work and study. Again, select those that appeal to
you.
Mind tools time management skills:
http://www.psychwww.com/mtsite/page5.html
Businessballs.com, time management techniques and systems:
http://www.businessballs.com/timemanagement.htm (This is a
pretty no-nonsense approach with scheduling templates and
tips for serious time management.)
16
Chapter 2: Using your time efficiently
2.3

As you will have seen from the time-management resources,
effective time management means controlling your time and your
environment to ensure that you do what you must in an efficient
and effective manner. It is not considered efficient or effective to
have to do a thing more than once. Yet learning does, in a sense,
take some repetition. What is critical here is that you study in a way
that maximises your focus and understanding and that lets you
build on what you have already learned via layered learning rather
than having to go back and rebuild the foundations because you did
not integrate it effectively in the first place.
We have briefly mentioned that you may need to control your study
environment in a way that permits you to be prepared to learn. In
other words, to switch to being a student. This might best be
achieved by putting yourself into the student mode in a consistent
way. This might consist of:
1
Making a study timetable
This clearly is just another extension of time management but

whereby you create a plan for studying each week/month/section
of your course that has specific times allocated to achieving what
you have identified as your priority A learning goals.
If you plan and schedule your study, you will be more likely to
adhere to it. This does not mean that you cannot plan to use dead
time, such as your bus trip home or the half hour spent waiting
while you take your child to the dentist or swimming lessons. On
the contrary, your ability to switch to being the student will be
much easier if you have planned for it and have specific doable
tasks and ready materials to work with.
2
Establishing a daily routine
This is, in a sense, a subset of the prior point: planning your study
time. However, there are considerations here that go beyond mere
scheduling:
your brain performs best if you subject it to a regular rhythm
layered learning takes time to build on earlier mastered
concepts
learning tasks broken down into manageable chunks are easier
accomplished than doing it all in a marathon study session
once a month
your brain also continues to work in the background on
thoughts and questions from your study session, contributing to
the layering of learning.
3
Creating a student place
Having a study environment that is organised, well lit, quiet and

comfortable will be optimal for learning. Also, if it is a place where
you are only a student, it will be easier for you to turn the switch
and prepare your brain to be a student. Having everything you
need will avoid wasting a lot of time looking for materials. If your
place is the same one each time you study, you will not waste time
being distracted by the presence of new things. This student place
can be anywhere that works for you. You might try a nearby library
if distractions at home or work make concentration impossible.
17
Even an outdoor space or your car or the bus can be that place
(even if not optimal) if it is part of your routine and you are ready
and able to work there.
4
Work to your strengths but do not overdo it
While it is important to work hard when you are actually at your

best, it is just as important to allow your brain time to rest and
relax fairly regularly. No one can concentrate at peak levels for
extended periods. So, you must take breaks. Go for a stroll, stretch,
look out of the window and focus your eyes on a distant horizon to
rest them. Get a glass of water. When you take a break, make it a
real break do not keep thinking about you have been reading. It
will all be there when you go back. Try to let your mind concern
itself with something other than the reading that you have been
concentrating on.
5
Schedule adequate time off from work and study
During this time, shut off all thoughts of work. Think about
anything else. Your brain needs a regular holiday, just as much as
the rest of you. View it as a reward earned for the rest of your hardworking week so that you will not feel guilty that there is still
studying to do. There will always be more to do!
6
Set yourself attainable goals
It is likely that you will have heard the expression success is its
own reward. If you think about it, you will know that it is true.
How satisfying is that feeling when you have accomplished
something that you set out to do! We also know that failure can
have a discouraging impact. So, using these very basic truths,
design your study plan in a way that you must succeed. In other
words, do not set yourself a task that you cannot finish in the time
available.
You know you cannot read a 300-page book in two hours. So, dont
set that as your target. You would be predestined for failure. But, if
you can read this kind of material at 15 pages an hour, you would
be able to accomplish 30 pages. This might correspond to two or
three chapters of that book. If reading a set number of chapters or
pages were your goal instead, you would be able to succeed in what
you had set out to do. What is funny is that you would have only
been able to read the same amount in any case. It is the perception
that colours what you achieve as success or failure. So, always set
the marker for success!
The ability to do this, however, requires that you have realistic and
honest expectations about what you can do. To do this, you likely
need to answer the following questions:
How long does it take you to read 10 pages of a textbook or a
law review journal?
How long does it take you to read five pages of a statute?
How long does it take you to write a two-page (500-word)
paper?
When you have identified your realistic requirements, you can plan
your studies in such a way that you will always finish what you set
out to do. Therefore, by the end of the day or the week you will be
able to relax, knowing that you are keeping up with your schedule.
18
Chapter 2: Using your time efficiently
In the light of your answers to the above questions, complete the

following exercise.
Exercise 1
Imagine you have scheduled yourself for an hours work in your student place.
Which of these tasks should you take up? (Pretend that all would apply!)
1
Reading through the notes on the last chapter.
Writing that overdue 3000-word assignment.
Looking for journal articles for your next chapter.
Writing your notes for this chapter.
Reading a 10-page journal article.
Reading a 15-page journal article.
Proofreading your latest your latest assignment for English errors.
Revising a first draft of that 3000-word assignment.
Having an afternoon nap.
Think about how long each one would take. If you finish your work
earlier than you intended, great. It means that you have earned
some free time. Do not be tempted to then start something that you
will not be able to finish, otherwise you will end up discouraged
despite having accomplished the other task(s).
To best accomplish achieving your goals, you need to define them
as specifically as possible and write them down. Try the following
exercise which should help you think about what this means.
Exercise 2
Look at these examples of what needs to be done. Which of the tasks is outlined
the most precisely? Which is outlined the least precisely?
1
Read The myth of subjectivity.
Make notes on chapter 3 of The myth of subjectivity especially about

community/society.
Read and take notes on The myth of subjectivity.
Make notes on chapter 3 of The myth of subjectivity.
Have a look at that book on myth
It is much easier to achieve goals that are clearly defined. Thus, the
more detailed you make your goal, the better. The other advantage
of defining goals is that it will force you to decide why it is that you
are reading at all!
(As we will see in chapter 3 on reading skills, the first rule about
reading anything for information is that you must have clearly in
your mind the reason why you are reading.)
19
Recognise your own strengths and weaknesses and

build them into your timetable
Attainable goals mean that you must be able to accomplish them,

not some other person. This means that you must try to build in
your own shortcomings as well as your own strengths. For instance,
if you work best early in the morning, it is better to schedule an
hour early in the morning and have nothing planned for after 9pm,
when you are at your worst. If your house is busy and noisy at
dinner-time, it might not be the best time to try and work. So,
when planning your schedule, you must take into account all these
and other individual needs and realities.
8.
Once you have set a schedule for the entire course,

month, week and day, review and update it daily
using your prioritisation skills
This is also a habit that must be acquired. Use to do lists in

connection with your day planner, set out your daily, prioritised,
attainable goals for the next day. You will avoid much stress if you
know exactly what you have to do and when you plan to do it.
Things will be under control the entire point of time
management!
20
Chapter 3: Reading efficiently
Introduction
Anyone on the LLM for External students must address a significant
problem: how to read all that has been assigned or recommended
on the course. This is especially true of part-time students who may
have to balance a full-time job and other demands. The solution to
this problem is that you just cannot read everything line by line and
word by word. This does not mean that you read inadequately, but
rather that you need to be able to read efficiently.
How you read something on the course will depend on your
purpose for reading it. Thus, if mastery of the concepts in a chapter
of an assigned text is your purpose, you may use a different method
from reading a law journal to decide whether you should read it in
the first instance.
This chapter outlines the various techniques for such reading and
points to some valuable resources that are available to help you
with all levels of mastery. As with any new skill (or old rusty skill)
you may need to do it consciously until such practice becomes a
habit and speed and retention grow.
3.1
3.1.1
Purposeful
Reading is purposeful. This means that the way you read something
will depend on why you read it. You will also read different texts
differently. In everyday life, you usually know why you are reading.
You have a question; you read to find the answer. You likely are
very familiar with the format of the newspaper you usually read. If
you want to know the weather for tomorrow, you readily find it. If
you want to know tonights television options, you go right to those
pages. You do not start on the first page.
When you read a novel, it is different. You start at the beginning
and proceed methodically to the conclusion. In academic reading,
you need to be flexible when you read you may need to read
quickly to find relevant sections, then read carefully when you have
found what you want. General efficient reading strategies such as
scanning to find the book or chapter, skimming to get the gist and
careful reading of important passages are necessary, as well as
learning about how texts are structured in your subject.
21
3.1.2
Interactive
Reading is an interactive process a two-way process. As a reader
you are not merely receiving input from the book passively, but are
in an active participation with the book and the page to make sense
of the marks printed on it. This means you have to work at
constructing the meaning from the book which you use as a
necessary guide. You construct the meaning using cues from your
prior knowledge of the language, the topic and your experience of
the world.
It is useful, therefore, before you start reading to try and actively
think about what you know (or do not know) about the subject. As
you read, you should try to continue interactively to formulate
questions based on the information you have. Title, sub-titles and
section heading can help you formulate questions to keep you
interacting.
3.2
3.2.1
General considerations
Efficient reading requires first that you locate quickly what is
relevant from what is not. Scanning techniques among shelves of
books or lists of search results in online legal databases and
skimming through texts to find the core of what you need are
building blocks for efficient reading. So are vocabulary-building
exercises.1
Having to look up a word in the middle of a sentence will surely
slow you down. This is especially true for those who are studying
under a different legal system for the first time or a new area of law
that has its own terminology. Here, the glossary in your text may be
helpful to familiarise yourself in advance of the specific
terminology. A legal dictionary may be of great assistance and
enable you to create lists of words for review and mastery. Many
such dictionaries are available by a Google search for legal
dictionary. For example, see:
Dumaines online legal dictionary,
http://www.duhaime.org/Dictionary/ (Canadian) (Some
annoying adverts, but you can click through them easily; need
to find words among lists)
Law.com law dictionary, http://dictionary.law.com/ (US)
(Easy search function in addition to alphabetised lists)
Nolo legal glossary, http://www.nolo.com/glossary.cfm (US)
(Plain English glossary for legal terms, may be a good place to
start for non-native speakers)
Find one that you like but just make sure that it is accurate for the
jurisdiction that you study. Most US, Canadian or UK dictionaries
will have similar meanings for terms, but until you establish that
reliability, be careful. One printed legal dictionary that is easy to
read and that addresses both UK and US distinctions is Garner, B.A.
A dictionary of modern legal usage (Oxford: Oxford University Press,
2001) second edition. Create a bookmark for your online
favourites. Finally, orienting yourself to how texts are structured
can also help you to read more efficiently.
22
In addition to dictionaries, one valuable
resource that might aid you generally to

build your general academic vocabulary is a
list of the most-frequently used academic
words against which you might want to
check your own comprehension:
http://www.uefap.co.uk/reading/intro/readi
nt.htm.
If you were to outline of the basic levels of efficient research and

reading, it might be the following:
scan the library to find the correct shelves
scan the shelf to find useful books
use the contents pages and indexes to find the relevant parts
skim the chapters to find out if they are useful
finally, read in detail at the level appropriate to the material.
Gillett, A. Using English for academic purposes a guide for
international students: reading skills for academic study (School of
Combined Studies, University of Hertfordshire).
3.2.2
Organisation of the library

As you can see, the above skill levels require you to have at least a
working familiarity with the library and its organisation. That may
not be physically necessary with the LLM programme for External
students, as most of your materials are provided or available online.
Using the online libraries is really not that different in principle,
since you must be familiar with how they are structured to readily
avail yourself of relevant material or to find a particular resource.
The use of online libraries will be addressed in chapter 7, part 3,
but a working familiarity with these various databases mostly
comes from just getting in there and spending a bit of time
attempting to find different things.
3.2.3
Survey of text structure

Learning how a text is structured enables you to read it more
efficiently. To do this, you must survey it. This is a concept that
may involve somewhat different steps, depending on why you are
surveying the text (e.g. to decide whether and what part of it you
should read in the first place or how to master what is in the text)
under different reading skills theories, as you will see shortly.
But basically, surveying is an ordered overview of various bits of
the text to gain an understanding of its type, contents and ability to
meet your needs (whatever that might be and that can vary).
One reading skills theorist suggests the following approach to
survey a book for its initial relevance:
When you pick up a book for the first time, use the index, the
preface, the blurb (publishers comments on the cover), the table of
contents and glance through it rapidly in order to identify the
relevant sections. Look at the chapter titles. If the chapter seems
useful, look at the headings and sub-headings. Quickly survey any
useful chapters by reading the first few lines of each paragraph or
by reading the first and last paragraphs. When you think you have
identified relevant sections, skim through them, read the conclusion
perhaps, to be sure they are relevant.
Gillett, A. Introduction Reading skills for academic study, available

at: http://www.uefap.co.uk/reading/intro/readint.htm
The author suggests that for efficient reading, you will need to
develop or practise the following skills:
23
Understanding meaning: deducing the meaning of unfamiliar

words and word groups; relations within the sentence/complex
sentences; implications information not explicitly stated,
conceptual meaning (e.g. comparison, purpose, cause, effect).
Understanding relationships in the text: text structure; the
communicative value of sentences; relations between the parts
of a text through lexical and grammatical cohesion devices and
indicators in discourse.
Understanding important points: distinguishing the main ideas
from supporting detail; recognising unsupported claims and
claims supported by evidence fact from opinion; extracting
salient points to summarise; following an argument; reading
critically/evaluating the text.
Reading efficiently: surveying the text, chapter/article,
paragraphs, skimming for gist/general impression; scanning to
locate specifically required information; reading quickly.
Notetaking.
Many resources are available to you as to how to approach the
development of such skills. One of the best that we have found is,
not surprisingly, Gillett, A. Using English for academic purposes: A
guide for international students: reading skills for academic study
(School of Combined Studies, University of Hertfordshire). This
web site is available at: http://www.uefap.co.uk/index.htm. It has
sections, including some helpful and fun exercises, specifically
addressed to purposes and methods of reading, scanning, surveying
and skimming, as well as identifying and relationships in text
structure and meaning.
We recommend that those of you who have decided that you need
work in this area take the time and go through this site
methodically.
3.2.4
Critical reading
Education... has produced a vast population able to read but unable
to distinguish what is worth reading. G.M Trevelyan
While it is important for everyone to read critically, it is especially

important to lawyers and legal scholars. Critical reading requires
you to evaluate the arguments in the text, weigh the evidence and
develop a set of standards on which to base your evaluation. You
need to distinguish fact from opinion and look at arguments given
for and against the proposition. This also means being aware of
your opinions and assumptions (positive and negative) of the text
you are reading so you can evaluate honestly. The following
questions may be usefully asked about any text you are reading:
1
Who is the intended audience?
What is the authors purpose?
Is the date of publication appropriate to the argument?
What conclusions are drawn?
Is evidence used to support arguments? How good is the

evidence? Are all the points supported?
Are there any unsupported points? Are they well-known facts

or generally accepted opinions?
Is there a clear distinction between fact and opinion?
24
Are the writers conclusions reasonable in the light of the

evidence presented?
What assumptions has the writer made? Are they valid?
10
Look for emotional arguments, use of maximisers:

completely, absolutely, entirely, or minimisers: only, just,
hardly, simply, merely.
11
In an experimental study, was the sample size adequate and

are the statistics reliable?
12
How do the conclusions relate to other similar research?
Useful skills to develop here are:

distinguishing the main ideas from supporting detail, and
extracting salient points to summarise
taking notes.
Both summarisation and note taking are addressed in chapter 4
that follows.
3.3

Gillett, A. in Using English for academic purposes, has suggested a
multi-step approach for reading of academic texts. It is set forth
here:
1
Look at the title, headline, any sub-headings, photos or

illustrations. Use these to predict what the text will be about
the topic.
Think about what you already know on this topic.
Write down what you would like to find out from the text.
You could write actual questions you would like answers to.
Make a note of words or phrases connected with the topic

that you may find in the text.
Survey the text: read the first and last paragraphs and the
beginning and final sentences of the other paragraphs. How
close were your predictions? Do you have a very general
idea of the structure of the text, what the different parts are
about?
Identify your purpose for reading:
if you are looking for specific information, read the part

where you think the information will be
if you want a general idea of the whole text, read the whole
text.
In both cases, ignore words or sections you do not immediately

understand.
7
You should now have a general idea of what the text is about
and if it is going to be useful for you. Does it answer the
question(s) you asked? Write down in one or two sentences:
what you think the main ideas are
what your first reaction to the text is do you find it

interesting, informative, well-argued, boring, illogical, or
inaccurate?
Do a second more careful reading, marking any new words
that are important for your understanding.
25
Check your statement of the main ideas and revise what you
wrote if necessary.
10
Decide what the subsidiary ideas are. How do they relate to

the main idea? Put all the ideas together in linear notes or as
a mind map.
11
Evaluate what you have read.
How does it fit into what you already think and know?
Does it confirm your ideas, add to them or conflict with

them?
If there are opinions, do you agree or disagree with them?
An exercise to apply this method prepared by the English Language

Centre, University of Essex, can be found at:
http://www.uefap.com/reading/exercise/menu_str.htm. Give it a
try to the extent you find at all helpful.
3.3.1
Academic vocabulary
We have earlier in this chapter noted the importance of vocabulary
building for effective and efficient reading. Clearly, there will be
new words used in your new area for study with which you will
need to familiarise yourself and begin to use with confidence. An
old axiom says Use a word three times and it is yours. Well,
owning some words is not always thought-free process. Perhaps the
following steps for mastering the vocabulary in your academic
texts, developed by A. Gillett, supra, will be helpful to you.
1
With the new words which you think are important:
if an approximate meaning is enough, try to guess the

meaning using word function, context (immediate and
wider) and word form
if the exact meaning is needed, use a dictionary (online

dictionaries are easy to find in any search engine (e.g. see:
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/).
Make a list of the new words which you think will be useful
for you in the future. Give:
definitions of the words
an indication of whether they are nouns, verbs, adjectives

etc.
the phrase in which the word occurs
other words with the same meaning
other forms of the words.
For example, counsellor (noun) = a person who gives help and

support to people who have problems, an adviser [counsel (noun),
to counsel].
3.3.2
SQ3R reading method

Another approach suggested for reading academic texts for mastery
is that called SQ3R. The Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State
University has a web site with helpful materials and exercises about
this reading method, available online at:
http://www.ucc.vt.edu/stdysk/stdyhlp.html
26
SQ3R stands for:

survey
question
read
recite
review.
Despite its use of survey techniques, this is not intended to be a
speed-reading approach but an efficient, ordered method for
identifying and distilling the contents of a text for mastery. While it
may initially involve a bit more time than just reading without a
method, it is likely to prove an overall saving, since you will have
greater retention requiring less revision and good notes that are
made as you read using this approach. It is worth your serious
consideration if you find that you would like an alternative
approach to the one recommended above, although if you analyse
both, they are fairly similar in their processes.
With either of these methods (or indeed, any of the skills identified
here) you will only become skilled at it if you practice it regularly.
27
Notes
28
Chapter 4: Summarising and effective

notetaking
Introduction
An important study skill for students is to be able to distil and make
use of the ideas of others. Lawyers do this all the time, if you think
about it. We cite to a case or an authority to bolster our claims or to
acknowledged authorities. For learning, it is important to show that
you have understood the materials you have read and that you can
use these ideas and findings in your own way. Some of the ways to
distil such ideas are via summarisation and note taking. Additional
reasons why note taking might be considered important to the
study process are that:
it helps you to remember information
it helps you to concentrate
it helps you prepare for tests
your notes are often a source of valuable clues for what
information the course developer thought most important and
on which you will likely be examined
your notes often contain information that cannot be found in
any one source as you have synthesised information from a
variety of readings.
As a distance learner, you will not ordinarily attend classes.
However, there may be opportunities for tutorials and you may
hear of a lecture through the law society or law school in the area
that you are studying. So, while classroom note taking might not be
an everyday skill, since you will wish to get as much out of those
tutorials or one-off lectures as possible, it could be a crucial skill. It
might also have value in your workplace, such as meeting notes.
Otherwise, as a distance learner, you will be well served if you can
prepare good notes while reading your course guide, the assigned
texts and other readings. The above reasons apply equally here.
Because of their importance in both scenarios, this chapter provides
some pointers for effective note taking as well as pointing you to a
variety of resources on the topic.
4.1

While you may have identified that you might want to do some
work on this skill in connection with the skills inventory assessment
in the introduction to this guide, you still might wonder what
improvements you need to make. In other words, why might your
notes made using present methods not be effective? Well, while any
29
system that really works for you is probably effective, you might
begin by asking yourself the following:
Did I use complete sentences? They are generally a waste of
time.
Did I use any formatting or structure at all?
Are my notes clear or confusing? Ask this about a set of notes
from a while ago.
Did I capture main points and all sub-points?
Did I streamline using abbreviations and shortcuts?
If you answered no to any of these, you may have some room for
improvement.
4.2

There are several forms that study notes can take.1
These include:
1
Outlining (as illustrated here somewhat):
I topic sentence or main idea
A major points providing information about topic
1 sub-point that describes the major point
a supporting detail for the sub-point.
Patterning: flowcharts, diagrams (remember those mind

maps?).
Listing, margin notes, highlighting.
Outlining is a traditional way used to organise information for

presentation. The following resource by Frank Landesburger, an
American educator specialising in learning processes and learner
characteristics, explains the difference between outlining and
concept or mind mapping (i.e. pictorial diagrams).
He suggests that the mind mapping is more the way our minds
process information. So using this method is more likely to make
the information meaningful to us. It has illustrations of concept
maps and the process of making them. See if this method has
potential for you http://www.studygs.net/mapping/mapping.htm
Flowcharts are also a way of presenting information pictorially,
usually about a process or a relationship. Examples of this are a
corporations organisational chart or the steps in of a particular task
that are needed for such things as creating software or figuring out
how work flows in a company. For example, creating software or
figuring out how a work flows in a company. These can be relevant
for such things as identifying the steps to applying a law (e.g. how
to decide if a contract is lawful under EU competition law). This
might easily and best be depicted in a flowchart. The following
resource from Vanderbilt University in the US offers a fairly simple
tutorial on how these are done:
http://mot.vuse.vanderbilt.edu/mt322/Flow.htm
Lists have the topic summarised, one point after another, using
numbers and letters and indentation to organise information in
order of importance. The numbers and letters can be used by
themselves or in combination, such as:
30
How to summarise and take notes on a
case is discussed in part 2. chapter 3,

3.7.1.
Chapter 4: Summarising and effective notetaking
I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X

A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
(i), (ii), (iii), (iv), (v), (vi), (vii), (viii), (ix), (x)
a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i.
Or lists can use decimals:
1.1, 1.2, 1.2.1, 1.2.2, 1.3, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3.
Table 4.1 List-type samples
I.
II.
III.
XXXX
XXXX
A.
B.
C.
XXXX
A.
B.
C.
IV.
V.
XXXX
A.
B.
C.
XXXX
1. XXXX
2. XXXX
a.
b.
c.
3. XXXX
a.
b.
XXXX
XXXX
XXXX
XXXX
XXXX
1.
2.
3.
XXXX
1.
2.
XXXX
XXXX
XXXX
XXXX
XXXX
XXXX
c.
XXXX
XXXX
XXXX
XXXX
XXXX
XXXX
XXXX
i.
ii.
iii.
XXXX
i.
ii.
4. XXXX
a. XXXX
b. XXXX
c. XXXX
5. XXXX
XXXX
XXXX
XXXX
XXXX
XXXX
1. XXXX
2. XXXX
2.1. XXXX
2.2. XXXX
2.3. XXXX
3. XXXX
3.1. XXXX
3.2. XXXX
3.2.1. XXXX
3.2.2. XXXX
3.2.3. XXXX
3.3. XXXX
3.3.1. XXXX
3.3.2. XXXX
4. XXXX
4.1. XXXX
4.2. XXXX
4.3. XXXX
5. XXXX
Margin notes may work well for you on the LLM for External
students, as the formatting of its study guides allows sufficient
room for such notes. What goes into these margin notes may be key
words or points from the text with your own thoughts summarising
your understanding of the information that you have read.
The Study Skills Center at California Polytechnic State University
offers a comparison not only of outlining and concept mapping, but
also a system called the Cornell Method, frequently referenced by
learning skills advisers and two other notetaking systems called the
charting method and the sentence method. If you are still trying to
decide what to practice, this may help as it discusses advantages
and disadvantages.
SQ3R, the reading technique discussed in chapter 3, has its own
notetaking method. This involves writing down the questions that
you ask yourself on the left-hand side of your paper as you survey a
chapter in a text and then the notes of your answers on the righthand side. (Some call this method SQW3R for write). One other
tutorial by Landsberger, J. Taking notes from a textbook might
also prove helpful here.
One other tutorial might also prove helpful here. It provides
another, somewhat less structured, approach to taking notes from a
31
textbook than SQ3R. Its main point is that you should not take
notes while you read. Rather, you should read an entire section,
review its points and paraphrase its ideas in your own words which
you should write down as notes:
http://www.studygs.net/booknote.htm
4.3

Make sure you write down where you have taken your notes
from. It will save you time when you need to check your facts
or write a bibliography.
When you summarise, it is very important to make sure you use
your own words, unless you are quoting. You must make it
clear when the words or ideas that you are using are your own
and when they are taken from another writer. You must not
use another persons words or ideas as if they were your own:
this is plagiarism! Plagiarism is regarded as a very serious
academic offence.
In lecture notes, make sure you write down the name of
anyone or any case quoted and the citation. You can then find
the quote if you need to make more detailed use of the
information later.
Notes are just a summary and should be much shorter than the
original. The sentence method tutorial referenced above shows
how this can be done using abbreviations and symbols
whenever possible. The table below shows some conventional
English symbols and abbreviations. Other legal abbreviations
may be helpful as well, for example, K the law school
reference to the word contract. The standard abbreviations for
legal writing are discussed in part 2.
Develop and use a consistent method of notetaking including
punctuation, abbreviations, margins, etc.
Take notes on individual sheets that can then be kept in a large
notebook or some other format that allows you to insert notes
about other readings or make cross-references to them.
Write neatly and legibly. It does you no good to spend hours
writing notes that you cannot read two months later.
Make sure that your notes reflect the relationship/links
between ideas as well as your own thoughts or questions about
the text from your critical reading process as discussed in the
previous chapter.
32
Chapter 4: Summarising and effective notetaking
Table 4.2 Standard English abbreviations

and
&
and others
(people)
Et. al.
and other things
Etc.
Answer
approximately
approx.,
c.
At
before example
Centimetre
Cm
century
Chapter
Ch.
Compare
Cf.
Degrees
Department
dept.
divided by
East
equal to
especially
esp.
for example
e.g.
Government
govt.
greater than
>
Important
N.B.
In one year
p.a.
Information
info.
Kilogram
Kg
less than
<
Maximum
max.
Minimum
min.
33
Minus
much greater than
>>
much less than
<<
Multiplied by
North
N
not come from
not equal
not lead to
number
No. or #
Page
p.
Pages
Percent
pp.
%
34
Chapter 5: Researching online and using

online resources
Introduction
The Internet is a vast and rich resource for finding information.
Many valuable works of all fields of study and endeavour have been
published online. However, the Internet has also allowed anyone to
become a published author. You write something, put it on a web
site, and there you are published! So, the modern student and
researcher must learn how to avail themselves of such works and
with what caution.
This chapter explores a range of topics regarding online legal study
and research. The first of these is the role of online resources versus
books. It them suggests some cautions for using online resources
from public web sites.
The chapter then briefly discusses copyright and again, the
important issue of: plagiarism! This cannot be emphasised enough.
It then addresses how you can avoid plagiarising and discover
forms of citation for online resources. The chapter reviews some of
the online legal databases that you may have available to you as a
University of London student. Finally, it provides you with an
extensive index of available legal and other online resources.
5.1

We can readily conjure up the traditional image of a lawyer
surrounded by those shelves of statute books and tomes of treatises
on the law of this or that. Has that all gone by the boards? Has the
availability of free legal resources on publicly-available web sites
and subscription services such as Lexis or Westlaw, obviated the
need for the books? Are we all now electronic researchers?
Well, probably not, if we are really students of the law. The
availability and convenience of these other resources makes a trip
to the library often unnecessary. Yet, they do have downsides.
Research is sometimes not as comprehensive. When you have to
click through a statute section download by section download, you
cannot do the same ready text analysis and comparison as easily as
you can by turning back and forth between two pages.
With electronic resources, you may not always be able to easily find
the hierarchy and structure of a work as you would be able to do by
surveying a book.
The evolution of a law might not be apparent from the latest
version on a web site. Moreover since often someones rights are at
35
stake, you does not want to rely on a source for law that is perhaps
incomplete or not authoritative. The issues surrounding the need
for both types of legal reference works are discussed in the
following law journal article that can be found in the US law review
and journals database:
Wu, M. Why print and electronic resources are essential to the
academic law library 97 Law Libr. J. 233 (2005)
5.2
The woes of the web

If you have read the article cited above, you are pretty much
familiar with many of the perils of researching online. These
include the overwhelming amounts of unfiltered data that may be
unsubstantiated, unsourced, undated, unattributed, unauthorised,
untraceable and generally, unreliable information that can be found
online.
This is not likely with the resources that are available in the paid
subscription databases, although, as with any legal publication, the
quality and reliability of the work can vary according to its source.
Rather, these problems are more likely with web sites that can be
found via the world wide web. Here you must not only use your
critical reading skills, but you must as well evaluate the worth of
site from its host or author if you can.
The web site owner may be discernable from the domain name
(i.e., the web site address or Universal Resource Locator (URL) as it
is technically called). A domain name that indicates a government
or educational institution might be authoritative, but not
necessarily so. Here you could look for .gov or .edu or .ac in the
domain name could indicate that these are such sites, but again,
there is no guarantee.
Other reliable sources might be:
museums
archives
non-profit institutions.
With personal or other web sites, look for names, phone numbers
or e-mail addresses that suggest who the author is and whether
you might be able to contact to verify the information in question if
you need to rely on it for anything important, like a pub quiz night
(if you ever get to go again!)
If you have several sources of information, choose from among the
most credentialed and seemingly authoritative and then look to
evaluate the nature of the citations and sourcing supplied with the
information. For example, the text of a UK statute with a link to
Her Majestys Stationary Office (HMSO)would allow you to verify
the accuracy of the text yourself.
Many free electronic journals such as the Journal of information law
and technology (JILT) are available without charge and can be
considered authoritative, as are online law school law reviews
(although you might consider a student work not as authoritative
as that of a senior academic).
36
Chapter 5: Researching online and using online resources
5.3
Lawful and ethical use of works made available

online
Although a web site may be available to the public and it is easy to
copy its text, that does not mean that you are authorised to do so.
The laws of copyright on the Internet are not always consistent
across jurisdictions, but generally, absent a lawful use, such copying
would comprise an infringement of copyright.
There are sites that invite you to use their works freely. You
therefore have licence to do so. Some works are not subject to
copyright, such as US government works or those for which
protection has expired and are now in the public domain.
The ideas or facts in a work on a web site might not be the subject
of copyright protection of themselves, but how they are expressed
may be. (However, you need to be careful here about plagiarism
see below.). So, you need to know the rules governing the work
before you copy it. There are several good resources that discuss
the issue of copying and Internet resources:
Field, T.G. Copyright on the Internet (Franklin Pierce Law
School 2004). (A fairly short but good review of issues from a
US copyright law perspective) available at:
http://www.fplc.edu/tfield/copynet.htm.
Grant, B. Online legal research (Newcastle University Law
School, 2004). A virtual lecture on electronic legal research,
available at:
http://www.ncl.ac.uk/nuls/lectures/legret/copyright.htm.
Even if you are allowed to use a work, you must be careful with
how you use and reference a work to avoid plagiarising, even
accidentally. As is noted:
In the world of honest scholarship, no rule is more revered than the
citation. Kavita Varma
This apt quote was in an article on how to avoid plagiarism and

properly reference works. See: Harnack, A. and G. Kleppinger,
Beyond the MLA: documenting electronic sources on the
Internet,(Eastern Kentucky University), available at:
http://english.ttu.edu/kairos/1.2/inbox/mla_archive.html#varma
#varma.
It provides an interesting discussion of citation form and evolving
web resource citation styles although some links to other resources
are now outdated.
Typing the word plagiarism into the Google search engine turns up
over three million resources, most of which are school web sites
with tutorials with guidance on how to avoid plagiarising
(especially unintentionally) with many that include examples of
what not to do.
37
Exercise 1
If this were any other chapter, it would be suitable either to give you a list of
those practical rules on how to avoid plagiarism or a list of web sites that we
found with such rules and evaluate for you their authority on the subject and the
effectiveness of their tutorials.
However, as this is the online resource chapter, why not log on to Google and
type in this term yourself and see what your search produces? Pick one or two
sites that you find effective. Bookmark them for easy reference. Or, better yet,
summarise their contents in notes that you take from them!
5.4
Using the web
5.4.1
Search engines
You already know what a search engine is if you have just used
Google. Basically, a search engine is a computer program that finds
documents based on the identification of key words. There are
many different search engines such as:
Google
Yahoo
Alta Vista
Lycos.
You might find it very helpful to find out how these work, so that
you understand better how and why to phrase your searches. A
really nice tutorial, How Internet search engines work is available
on one of the coolest web sites (except for the advertising) that tells
you and often shows you How stuff works. The site can be found
at: www.howstuffworks.com.
This specific tutorial can be found at:
http://computer.howstuffworks.com/search-engine.htm. At the end
of the tutorial there are links to a whole list of search engines.
Different search engines may be more effective for finding different
things, especially local search engines for local resources.
Another very effective tutorial Web search engines is by Grant, B.,
supra, available at:
http://www.ncl.ac.uk/nuls/lectures/legret/websearch.htm. This
virtual lecture also addresses Boolean search terms at:
http://www.ncl.ac.uk/nuls/lectures/legret/search.htm.
These are often used by even single web site search engines, so it
will be helpful for you to have familiarity with how to do them.
5.5
Universities and colleges subscribe to a range of electronic journals
and databases. As a student of the University of London LLM
programme for External students, you are likely to be entitled to
use a range of these, subject to the licence conditions agreed by the
University or its various Colleges involved.
The most well-known of these are Westlaw, Lexis-Nexis, LawTel,
Kluwer, and Justis.com. You will need a valid user name and
38
password for access to such databases and journals that will be

provided to you.
Justis.com provides the semi-official Law Reports from 1865
onwards and the weekly law reports which began in 1953. It is
available at: www.justis.com.
WESTLAW is a very large collection of databases of primary
and secondary UK and US materials, including hundreds of full
text law journals. It also provides the legal journals index. Its
EU materials are extensive, but not as comprehensive as that
for the US. It is available at: www.westlaw.com.
LEXIS-NEXIS is an enormous collection of materials from all
over the world. It is available at: www.lexisnexis.com
Kluwer is a database with a range of electronic academic
journals.
How you access and use these databases can vary from one to
another, but you should be given basic information from the library
service about this. You should look in on your library web site or
the database homepage for a tutorial or link for training on how to
use it.
For example, Westlaw requires a user name and password.
However, before you need to have or use these, you can access a
series of interactive tutorials with or without audio on how to use
this database. To find these tutorials just follow these steps:
1
Go to www.westlaw.com
The home page with a sign-on screen will appear
On the bar above the sign-on screen, click on Westlaw training

in small letters
A screen Westlaw training options will appear. Select Web

Based Training Options.
A screen Westlaw Training on the Web will appear with

current courses available.
Select Using Westlaw.
The screen will link down to where you can choose between
Audio and Non-audio. Choose whichever you would like to
try. Non Audio uses text at the margins. Both are interactive.
If you do not have Flash Macromedia installed, you will be

asked to install it. It takes a few minutes if you do not have
broadband.
A screen will appear with the following options. Choose that

which interests you. They are each 510 minutes long.:
Accessing Westlaw
Getting started with your jurisdictional content
Finding documents
Finding documents by title or citation
Searching with natural language (not Boolean!)
Searching with terms and connectors (i.e. Boolean)
Searching with the table of contents
Searching key search (a west publishing key word and

number concept)
Using key cite to verify good law
Using key cite to expand legal research
39
Printing your search results (or e-mailing them!)
Saving your search
Personalising your tab
Resultsplus
Starting your Westlaw research.
Proceed through the tutorials at your own pace.
5.6

The following is a series of links to online legal, study skills and
other helpful resources:
www.curia.eu.int (ECJ judgments)
www.hmso.gov.uk
www.parliament.uk
www.lawreports.co.uk
www.courtservice.gov.uk (Court forms and judgments etc)
www.companieshouse.org.uk/
www.thelawyer.com/
There are also a number of link-sites and gate-ways which may
assist in locating useful legal websites. For instance:
www.ials.sas.ac.uk/eagle-I.htm (Institute of Advanced Legal
Studies)
www.venables.co.uk/legal
www.bailii.org
www.barcouncil.org.uk (The Bar Council)
www.lawsociety.org.uk/home.law (The Law Society)
www.law.cam.ac.uk/jurist/index.htm
Judgments services:
Court Service Judgments
Incorporated Council of Law Reporting
Employment Appeal Tribunal
House of Lords
Privy Council Judgments
Scottish Court Opinions
Courts
House of Lords
Privy Council
The Court Service
Court of Appeal and High Court
European Court of Justice
European Court of Human Rights
European Free Trade Association Court
International Court of Justice
International Criminal Court
Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court enters into
force 1 July 2002.
40
Scottish Courts Website

Electronic law journals
Searchable Lists of Academic Law eJournals
Find Law
US Student Law Reviews
UK Full Text Journals
Web Journal of Current Legal Issues
UK's first general legal academic ejournal published at the
University of Newcastle.
Journal of Information, Law and Technology
IT law and applications, published at the Universities of
Warwick and Strathclyde.
Mountbatten Journal of Legal Studies
SCRIPT-ed
A journal of law and technology
Online abstracts - UK and European
Blackwell Publishers
European Law Journal
Law & Policy
Modern Law Review
Ratio Juris
The Journal of Law and Society
Cambridge University Press
Cambridge Law Journal
Kluwers
Artificial Intelligence and Law
Common Market Law Review
Business Law Review
European Journal of Law Reform
Feminist Legal Studies
International Journal for the Semniotics of Law
Law and Critique
Legal Studies
Journal of the Society of Public Teachers of Law
Oxford University Press
The British Journal of Criminology
Industrial Law Journal
International Journal of Law and Information Technology
International Journal of Law Policy and the Family
Journal of Environmental Law
Medical Law Review
Oxford Journal of Legal Studies
European Union
EUR-Lex
41
Other sites
CORDIS - Community Research and Development

Information Service
EUROPA (European Commission)
European Court of Justice
I'M Europe (Electronic Information Market)
European Integration
EuroInternet
Harvard Jean Monnet Chair Working Papers Series
General gateways
BUBL Information Service

Library based information service.
ESRC Data Archive

4,500 datasets in Social Sciences and Humanities, held at
the University of Essex
Jiscmail
UK academic electronic mailing lists service
Mimas
Manchester Information Datasets and Associated Services
NISS Information Gateway

National Information Services and Systems
SOSIG
Social Science Information Gateway
UK250
Thousands of websites in 250 categories
International
United Nations
International Court of Justice
United Nations
UN official website locator
United Nations Commission on International Trade Law

(UNCITRAL)
World Trade Organisation (WTO)
Portals
Admiralty and Maritime Law Guide
ASIL Guide to Electronic Sources for International Law
Cyberlaw Encyclopedia
FLAG
Foreign Law Guide Project
Legal E-zines
Consilio
In Brief
Law Gazette
Legal week
The Lawyer Group
www.thelawjournal.co.uk
Legal information gateways
42
Connecting Legal
Waterlow's Legal Directories
University of Kent at Canterbury

Sarah Carter's site.
Legal Resources in the UK and Ireland

Delia Venables Portal
Infolaw
Nick Holmes Portal to the UK Legal Internet
Internet Law Web

A Practical Site for Internet Law
Law on the Web

Written and maintained by Martin Davies
JURIST
The Law Professors' Network
UKCLE
UK Centre for Legal Education (UKCLE)
Legal information institutes
Australasian Legal Information Institute (AustLII)
British and Irish Legal Information Institute (BAILII)
Legal Information Institute (Cornell)

US Code
Legal Information Institute Mirror site at University of
Warwick
Lex Mercatoria
Leading collection of International Trade Law resources
World Legal Information Institute (WorldLII)

Free Global Law
Publishers and bookshops

Publishers
Butterworths Publishers
Cambridge University Press
Cavendish Publishing
The Stationery Office
LEXIS NEXIS
Oxford University Press
Sweet & Maxwell Ltd
Bookshops
Amazon
Blackwell's Bookshops
Books on Line
Hammicks Legal Bookshop
The Internet Bookshop
WH Smith Online
Societies and associations
American Society of International Law
British and Irish Law, Education and Technology

Association
Center for International Legal Studies
European Law Students Association
Society for Computers and Law
43
Society of Legal Scholars in the United Kingdom and

Ireland
(Formerly Society of Public Teachers of Law in Great
Britain and Northern Ireland - SPTL)
UK government
UK Government Information Service
See also:
Central Office of Information
Department for Constitutional Affairs
Department for Trade and Industry
Law Commission for England and Wales
Scottish Law Commission
United Kingdom Official Papers On-line
UK legal profession
College of Law
The Bar Council
Bar pro bono unit
Law Search
The Law Society
Lawyers Online
Trainee Solicitors' Group
UK Parliaments
United Kingdom Parliament
House of Lords Papers
House of Commons Papers
Acts of Parliament
Statutory Instruments
Northern Ireland Assembly
Scottish Parliament
Welsh Assembly
Voluntary Sector
The UK
44
Adam Smith Institute

Right wing independent think-tank
Charity Commission for England and Wales

Promoting the effective use of charitable resources
Commission on Racial Equality

Established under the Race Relations Act 1976
Equal Opportunities Commission

Established under the Sex Discrimination Act 1975
Index on Censorship
Freedom of speech
Institute of Employment Studies

Employment policy research institute.
Institution of Public Policy Research

Left-of-centre independent think-tank
Joseph Rowntree Foundation

Research and development in the fields of housing, social
care and social policy
National Association of Citizens Advice Bureaux

Independent Legal Advice Registration Required
National Council for Voluntary Organisations

Voice of the Voluntary Sector
Statewatch Database
Monitoring the state and civil liberties in the European
Union
Charities Direct
Home of the National Charities Database
Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator

Scottish Executive
Wales Council for Voluntary Action
Guidestar
Charities Resource Network
VolResource
Information for voluntary and community organisations
Voluntary and Third Sector Policy Library

Based at LSE
Charity Finance Directors Group
Association of Charitable Foundations
The Association For Research In The Voluntary And

Community Sector
The Charity Law Unit, Liverpool Law School
Charity Law Research Unit, Department of Law, Dundee

University
Institute of Governance, Public Policy and Social Research,

Queen's University, Belfast
The Henley Centre for Voluntary Sector Management,

Henley Management College
Centre for Voluntary Sector and Not For Profit

Management, City University Business School
Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations

(ACEVO)
Association of Charitable Foundations
Institute of Fundraising
Institute of Philanthropy
Charity Law Association
Charity Times Magazine
Third Sector Magazine
Statewatch database
Outside the UK
European Commission, social economy
http://europa.eu.int/comm/enterprise/entrepreneurship/c
oop/index.htmThe International Center for Not-for-Profit
Law
Based in Washington DC, USA, with the on-line journal
International Journal of Not-for-Profit Law
Online Compendium of Federal and State Regulations for

U.S. Nonprofit Organizations
45
Center for Civil Society Studies

The Johns Hopkins Institute for Policy Studies, Johns
Hopkins University, USA
The Hauser Centre for Nonprofit Organizations

Harvard University, USA
Center for the Study of Philanthropy and Voluntarism

Duke University, USA
National Center on Philanthropy and the Law

New York University, USA
Charity Channel
Discussion forum and charity news service (subscription
site)
Philanthropy Resources Online

Indiana University-Purdue University, Indianapolis, USA
Canadian Centre for Philanthropy
Canadian Charity and Not-For-Profit Law

Provided by Carter & Associates
Voluntary Sector Initiative

Canada
Australian Charities
Centre of Philanthropy and Nonprofit Studies

Queensland University of Technology, Australia
Inquiry into the definition of charities

Australia
Philanthropy Australia
CIVICUS
Vocabulary-related web sites

A number of useful on-line resources are available to help with
vocabulary. Visit them, become familiar with their features and
functions, and put them in your bookmarks/favourites so you can
visit them regularly:
The academic word list (Averil Coxhead)
For further information about the AWL, and many useful links,
including to many of the pages listed below. You can also
download Paul Nations Range program for analysing
vocabulary.
www.vuw.ac.nz/lals/div1/awl/info.html
Web Vocabulary Profiler (Tom Cobb)
If you paste a text into this page it will show you/highlight in
colour which AWL and other words it contains. Also Legal
vocabulary and many useful word-building tips and exercises.
www.er.uqam.ca/nobel/r21270/texttools/web_vp.html
Using the AWL (Sandra Haywood)
If you paste a text into this page it highlights the AWL words
contained and also makes you a gap-fill exercise using the text.
Some example texts are also available.
www.nottingham.ac.uk/%7Ealzsh3/acvocab/
Example sentence finders
To find real example sentences/contexts for words which you
are interested in, to help with your vocabulary card project.
http://sara.natcorp.ox.ac.uk/lookup.html
46
http://titania.cobuild.collins.co.uk/form.html
The complete lexical tutor (Tom Cobb)
For a very wide range of online vocabulary tools, including
testing, building and analysing.
http://132.208.224.131/
Vocabulary Index (David ORegan)
More tips and tools, and further useful links.
www.bilkent.edu.tr/%7Eodavid/vocabulary/vocabularyhome.h
tml
Writing
Academic Phrasebank (A useful resource for academic writers
from John Morley at Manchester)
Academic Writer (from Virtual Language Centre, Hong Kong)
Academic Writing Module (from Victoria University of
Wellington, New Zealand)
Academic Writing: Self-Access (from Central European
University)
Advice on Academic Writing (University of Toronto)
Cornell University (General information about writing a
research paper)
eSKILLS UNE (The skills of finding and using information)
ESL projects (ESL web-based projects)
Library Research (How to do library research)
On-Line Technical Writing (On-line textbook from Austin
Community College, Texas USA)
Purdue University On-line Writing Lab (Highly recommended
on-line writing resources)
Research Writing for High School and College
Students(Internet Public Library)
Study Guides and Strategies (University of St. Thomas (UST),
St. Paul, Minnesota)
The Nuts and Bolts of College Writing (A useful guide to
college writing)
The Writing Center (The University of Wisconsin-Madison
Writing Center)
The Writing Center (University of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill)
tUNE up your skills (University of New England)
University of Surrey (Language Resource Centre self-access
pages)
Warwick University Self Access Centre (EAP reading and
writing practice)
Writer's Web (Good resources for essay writing)
Writing and Presenting your Thesis or Dissertation (Advice
from Joseph Levine at Michigan State University)
Writing DEN (Writing tips: paragraphs & essays)
Writing Tools (from Harvard University)
American Psychological Association (Electronic reference
formats recommended by the APA)
47
Columbia Guide to Online Style (Columbia University Press's

guide to electronic reference formats)
Keys for Writers (Companion to Anne Raimess book)
Modern Languages Association (Documenting sources from the
world wide web - MLA style)
online! (A reference guide to using Internet sources)
Punctuation (Learn about full stops, commas, colons, etc.)
Punctuation made simple (Discussion of the most important
punctuation marks: colon, semicolon, comma, dash,
apostrophe)
Spelling (Check your spelling.)
Online Technical Writing (Introduction to the main features of
writing relevant to science, technology and business.)
The Guardian Style Guide (Useful information on aspects of
style: spelling, punctuation, capitalisation, hyphens etc.)
Study skills
How to study (Google directory: How to study.)
skills4study (A companion site to the Palgrave study skills
series)
Language
Grammar
Grammar Help Page (Interactive language exercises)
Grammar Links (More links to grammar practice)
Grammar On-Line (Review English grammar on the World
Wide Web)
Grammar Safari (Hunt for and collect examples of language
use)
Guide to Grammar and Writing (From Capital Community
College, Hertford, Connecticut)
Internet Grammar of English (A complete online English
grammar from University College, London)
Learn English (from the British Councils Learn English site)
On-Line English grammar (Online grammar practice)
Vocabulary
Academic Vocabulary (Expand your academic vocabulary using
the Academic Word List, by Sandra Haywood)
Academic Word List(A list of useful academic words and advice
on how to learn them, by Averil Coxhead)
A Word a Day (Learn a new word every day)
BBC World Service (Learning English Study Guides: Vocabulary
Notebook.)
British National Corpus (Find typical contexts in which words
occur)
Electronic Vocabulary Building Book (Designed to make
vocabulary learning more methodical and improve recordkeeping.)
Interesting things for ESL students (Quizzes, puzzles, proverbs,
anagrams, slang and more by Charles Kelly and Larry Kelly)
Language Guide (Everyday vocabulary in many languages)
48
The Compleat Lexical Tutor (For data-driven language learning

on the web)
The Sketch Engine (On-line language analysis)
UH Glossary (Glossary of terms used at UH)
WASPS (Detailed information about word contexts.)
Web Concordancer (For vocabulary and grammar study.)
Word Games (Games and activities based on Merriam
Webster's dictionaries)
Words in the News (Words used in recent BBC news reports)
Wordsurfing (Expand your word power by creating an
organised vocabulary notebook)
Wordwizard (Your first port of call for anything concerning
words and the English language).
49
Notes
50
Part 2: Legal English
51
52
Contents: part 2
Chapter 1
55
Chapter 2
Legal vocabulary
57
Chapter 3
Essay process and planning
59
3.1
Essay pre-writing
59
3.2
Writing
61
3.3
62
3.4
Referencing
62
3.5
63
The structure of an essay
65
4.1
Essay structure
66
4.2
Other essay types
70
Writing paragraphs
71
5.1
Topic sentences
71
5.2
73
5.3
Concluding sentences
74
5.4
74
5.5
Revising paragraphs
75
Attributes of academic and professional writing
77
6.1
Six attributes of scholary writing
77
6.2
78
Referencing and avoiding plagiarism
89
7.1
What is plagiarism?
89
7.2
91
7.3
Referencing
92
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
53
Notes
54
Chapter 1: Part 2: Introduction
Introduction
Other professions and trades use adding machines and numbers,
scalpels and drills, lumber and levels, nails and hammers, pots and
pans, combs, needles and thread, etc. However, lawyers use only
words: words on paper or words spoken. These can be very
powerful tools if used clearly and convincingly.
This part of the skills guide focuses on how to develop effective
writing skills, the first of these legal tools. This is considered
important for the LLM programme for External students, despite
the fact that you will not do any major writing tasks here, such as
extended essays.
As a University of London credential carries with it an implied mark
of quality and abilities, and as you will probably write many works
over the course of your career, good writing is viewed as a key skill.
It is also a foundation skill for good examination skills that were
addressed in the previous part.
Chapter 2 of this part addresses legal vocabulary. While legal
French and legal Latin, as well as other legal lexicon, can be
daunting at first glance to the new student, mastery of this at an
appropriate level is a skill premised on other familiar skills and
readily accomplished.
Chapters 3 and 4 look at the process and structure of an essay, a
basic writing structure, which if mastered can serve as the
foundation for other writing tasks such as reports or memoranda.
Chapter 3 details the steps of pre-writing and writing an essay, with
some considerations of time management.
Chapter 4 explores how a research essay should be structured and
provides references to tutorials for other types of essays.
Chapter 5 analyses the writing of paragraphs, including their
structure and the use of words.
Chapter 6 explores the attributes of academic writing which may be
viewed as encompassing or having such attributes in common with
much professional writing. It considers the viewpoints of several
writing theorists as to the requisites for more formal writing and
provides links to tutorials accompanying these views. It also
addresses some basic rules of grammar and usage and points you to
more comprehensive resources, such as the pre-eminent Elements
of style by Strunk and White. This can serve as a guide for good
writing for all who write, not just lawyers. After all, good legal
writing should be merely good writing that uses legal reasoning
and legal authority. (Tutorials on legal reasoning, solving legal
55
Study skills: part 2
problems and the use of legal authority as precedent or persuasive

authority are addressed in part 2 of this guide.)
Chapter 7 addresses referencing and citation form and how to
avoid plagiarism. Legal citation is a useful legal writing skill as
there are rules for accurately citing legal authority.
Those of you who are unlikely to practice law or engage in legal
writing outside of the exams for this programme may wish just to
know where to find these should you ever need them or to master
them only at a basic level. However, understanding the basics of
legal citation often provides an understanding of where in the
pecking order of authority, a particular case or statute etc. lies.
Those of you who will practice as lawyers under some systems and
solicitors or barristers under others may find a mastery of proper
legal citation essential to your writing, especially where you are
engaged in contentious matters or other formal legal or academic
writing.
Tutorials on other skills that involve writing have been included in
other parts where they seemed more appropriate.
Thus, the skills you will have developed from the two previous
parts will only be enhanced by those effective writing and legal
writing skills you develop in this part.
56
Chapter 2: Legal vocabulary
Introduction
Law is a system of rules, which are often written. Furthermore, it is
the study and/or interpretation of those rules as written or as
further interpreted in writing by judges. Lawyers work in words, as
chapter 1 stated. But did you know that in medieval times legal
scribes, those who wrote legal documents, were often paid by the
word? That is true, although it was usually very little per word. For
this reason, scribes often used more than one word with the same
basic meaning to add to the word count.
Although payment is no longer tied to word volume, old habits die
hard. You can still see legal forms using legal jargon with multiple
words to describe the same thing. For example, in deeds, some of
the oldest legal documents, it is not unusual to see still all of that
part, plot and parcel of land situate, lying and being merely to say
the land located.
However, in law sometimes the form of the writing still matters, as
do the words used. Where rights and important interests can be at
stake, ideas need to be worded accurately and clearly to make the
point intended precisely. Although there is a great effort to simplify
and demystify the language of law and eliminate much jargon, legal
writers still use legal vocabulary, including legal Latin (and
sometimes legal French, such as tort meaning a wrong), that have
a meaning traditional in law. A form of art, you might call it.
These are understood, for the most part, by those who have learned
the words in their law studies if not to use them themselves, then
to at least understand what they mean. This is still required despite
the push for plain English as often documents and cases using these
words still have consequence.
Unfortunately, such mastery usually entails a new law student
looking up every third word or so for the first few months and
creating vocabulary lists (see part 1 of this guide), until the core
legal vocabulary is mastered. Other legal terms arise in the study of
a specific area of the law. For example, the law of trusts has a
vocabulary that can still use old-fashioned but traditional terms
with very particular meanings. For example, cestui que trust is
from Old French meaning the one who trusts or the beneficiary of
a trust. Therefore, you can be an experienced lawyer, but new to a
specialty of law that requires learning a new specialist vocabulary.
The reality is that the law just has roots that go way back and there
is a legal vocabulary that goes back with it. What this means is that
students who are new to law or an area of the law need to use that
basic skill learned in school of looking a word up in the dictionary.
Here the dictionary is just a good legal dictionary. For the UK, US
57
and other common law jurisdictions, this may mean Blacks law
dictionary.
You are lucky. This tome is available online in Westlaw (see part 1
chapter 5 for a discussion on accessing Westlaw and tutorials on
how to use it). Just click on the Law school classic tab at the top
centre of the page. The dictionary is at the lower left-hand side of
the page that appears. This or Garner, B.A. (also the editor of
Blacks) Dictionary of modern legal usage (available in paperback)
are likely more authoritative for legal writing than some of the
other legal dictionaries that are easily available by a search for
legal dictionary in any good search engine. But if you are just
using it to get a sense of the word or its origin, use that which is
most convenient. You may want to bookmark one that you find in
your browser for ready access.
Mastering these words does not mean necessarily that you will use
legal terms in your own writing although you may, if appropriate.
The choice to do so should be where clarity or certainty requires it
or where formal requirements for documents make it traditional,
such as wills or pleading forms in some countries and the forms for
citation to legal works, etc.
Other than that, good writing skills using clear English should
suffice. See part 1 of this guide for a core academic vocabulary list.
Chapter 6 in this part addresses the attributes of academic and
professional writing. Legal citation is also addressed in this part, in
chapter 7.
58
Chapter 3: Essay process and planning
Introduction
While you will not have to write any dissertations or reports on the
University of London LLM for External students, many of you, in
the scope of your employment, will have to write memoranda,
reports, research papers or other assignments which might be
grouped under the head of essay for their common attributes.
Therefore you may find the discussion below regarding the prewriting and writing processes of an essay helpful. As both the prewriting and writing processes involve a series of tasks that often
must be completed for a deadline, this chapter considers some
time-management issues and provides a link to software that
develops a time and action plan for your deadline: The University
of Minnesota assignment calculator, available at:
http://www.lib.umn.edu/help/calculator/. Although some of the
references are specific to that university, you will find that many
are not and that even those that are can be mapped to resources
available through the University of London. Because this tool
divides the writing of an essay into a series of smaller tasks with
interim deadlines based on your ultimate deadline, we are going
follow its steps as the framework for our discussion which divides
the process of writing an essay into three parts:
pre-writing
writing
revising/editing.
These are often overlapping and circular processes that you may
find you
3.1
Essay pre-writing
All of the steps that you must take to do an essay but before you
begin to write are consist of the pre-writing:
deciding what to write about
finding and documenting the sources for the content of your
paper
developing an organised structure for how your essay will work
best.
Those who often write may have their own tried and true methods
and steps that work well and may not need to think about what it
takes to get ready to write a formal essay. However, those who
have not done so in a while or who find that they are not as
methodical or organised as they would like to be might like to
consider the process further. So, go to the assignment calculator
and either using real or imaginary dates for a writing task, plug in
59
the date this assignment is due to see the steps it develops with
their respective interim deadlines.
3.1.1
Step one: understanding what you are being asked to write and
refining the topic
Whether you have been given a specific topic to write about or
whether you have to come up with a topic yourself, the first steps
are:
understanding the scope, criteria of the task, its audience and
style and the level of research required
refining what issues you are going to write about is the first
step.
(Actually, these are steps 1 and 2 in the assignment calculator!)
This site has several tutorials on these preliminary but critical steps
to interpreting the nature of the ultimate task, such as How to
begin (link on step 2) and Brainstorming (available via How to
begin) that explore a number of ways to begin to think about a
topic or writing tasking including using a skill that you have
already learned: mind mapping (see Summarising and effective
notetaking, part 1). Review these to the extent that you find
helpful. You may need to do a little bit of background reading or
research first, such as a scan of the latest cases or articles in your
area of expertise or a web search using some key phrases in your
likely general topic to see the latest news reports.
3.1.2
Step 2: developing thesis statements or research

questions
This is a continuation and formalisation of the steps above. Once
you have narrowed the focus of your paper and understood which
topic you will write about, why and for whom, you have to decide
what it is about this topic that you will be writing and why this is
worth writing about. (Of course, if you have been told that an
important client wants this question answered, the why-you-careabout this issue has been decided!)
If you know what specific questions you are looking to address in
your paper, both your writing and your research will be focused,
thus avoiding wasting time by addressing unrelated materials. The
assignment calculator leads to good tutorials on developing thesis
statements or research questions, including the So what? test.
Another set of helpful tutorials can be found at the Gallaudet
University writing center: English works!: thesis statement
available at:
http://depts.gallaudet.edu/englishworks/writing/thesishandout.ht
ml. Both of these have samples and exercises.
3.1.3
Step 3: developing a research strategy

Once you know the questions that you are trying to answer, you
need to figure out how to answer them without spending years
finding your resources. There are several good tutorials here. The
first are those through the assignment calculators links under this
step. These are tutorial modules addressed to both long research
papers and short papers and speeches. Explore these and select
what is helpful to your project. You may also find the following
helpful: Gillett, A. Academic writing: researching the essay
60
available at: http://www.uefap.co.uk/writing/writfram.htm. This is

not specific to legal research, however, so you may need to expand
the source references to include appropriate legal references, both
primary and secondary. You might refer back to part 1, chapter 3:
online research of this skills guide.
3.1.4:
Step 4: Find, review and evaluate books, articles and

other resources, take careful notes
This step (steps 5, 6, and 7 in the assignment calculator with one
step for different types of resources) requires you to go to the
library and/or access the online databases and other resources as
appropriate. Here, your task is to hone in and find those sources
appropriate to your topic. This requires you to use those skimming
and reading-critically skills that you developed in part 1 of this
guide, in order to be able to locate a book or other text quickly and
to look at its title, date, index, etc. to establish whether it is
relevant to your research. A further evaluation of the merit of the
source might be appropriate. For a tutorial on this topic: See Gillett,
A. supra, Researching the essay: evaluating sources available at:
http://www.uefap.co.uk/writing/writfram.htm. Each of the
assignment calculator steps has a tutorial for that type of resource.
Taking effective and careful notes with the necessary details for
your bibliography is a topic also addressed in part 1 of this guide
and as well in chapter 7, Referencing, in this part. We have
discussed the importance of noting the sources of your ideas and
quotes. Please refer to these chapters and the resources therein
3.1.5
Step 5: organising the structure

People have various approaches to how they like to sort their
thoughts and materials out in order to begin writing. Some like to
prepare a detailed outline. While the next chapter addresses the
structure of an essay, something you might want to think about is
the general template for writing. What we are talking about here is
the order of the flow of ideas and issues. A helpful tutorial that
addressed this is Colorado State Universitys Writing Center
Planning the organisation, with links to other tutorials, available
at:
http://writing.colostate.edu/guides/documents/argument/pop3h.c
fm. Gallaudet Universitys tutorials on outlining are also very good
and are available at:
http://depts.gallaudet.edu/englishworks/writing/main/prewrite.ht
m.
3.2
Writing
After you have completed the above pre-writing processes, you will
be ready to start writing. The chapter on writing paragraphs that
follows may be something that you wish to review before you write,
in addition to that on the structure of an essay as noted above.
3.2.1
Step 6: Writing a first draft

Using the calculators deadlines, the next step is that you produce a
first draft. This step on the assignment calculator has a brief
61
tutorial with a draft Preparation Worksheet. You may find it

helpful.
Having done a first draft does not mean, however, that you will not
have to go back and find further resources or focus on a new issue
that surfaces while you are writing. We have said above that the
processes of writing an essay were not linear. That is why the next
step is really a pre-writing process.
3.2.2
Step 7: conduct additional research as necessary (prewriting)

When you are writing, you will likely realise that you dont have all
the resources that you need to support your thesis or answer your
questions. Or, as we just said, new issues may surface. Track what
is missing. It may be that you have left a blank footnote with an
instruction to yourself to find a source for a statement. Or, you may
have sections that you cannot yet write clearly as you need to find
additional materials. Note where these are and what they need so
that you can quickly find them. You might keep an edits/revision
sheet that details the gaps and their location by page. In any event,
go through the pre-writing steps that you need to address these
gaps: hone the new issues, find the research, and take further
notes.
3.3

These writing processes are equally important for a good result.
You should not skip them. Do not rely on the grammar check in
your word processing software. These are often wrong!
3.3.1
Step 8: review and edit your paper

Once you have a draft text, you need to make sure that it says what
and how you intend it to. As the University of Minnesota tutorial
points out, revising means to re-see. You need to be able to step
back and evaluate critically your own writing and make changes
appropriate to the need whether they be global revisions or just
refinements to sections. At this stage you might also ask for
feedback on your work from either your boss or a friend who will
take the time to read it and give you comments. Access the tutorial
on revising in the assignment calculator. The links to other online
writing centers on the left side of the site will access many
resources on writing and editing.
3.4
Referencing
Ensuring the proper sourcing of ideas is so important to academic
writing that we are going to include it here as a separate writing
process. As noted above, chapter 7 infra, deals with this topic. You
should read it before you write to identify the particulars of the
reference method that you are to use. This way you will obtain the
necessary details in your note taking.
62
3.4.1
Step 9: prepare your bibliography; put your paper in

final form
These are the components of the final step in the assignment
calculator. It also has helpful tutorials on referencing. Depending
on the type of writing and the academic discipline in which you
write, you may need to prepare a separate bibliography or
acknowledgement of references. (If you are writing in a discipline
like law or for a journal that requires only complete footnotes or
endnotes, this will not be necessary. While you will likely do this as
you write, you should at this stage, ensure its accuracy and
completeness.)
A helpful resource in addition to those cited in chapter 7, is the
citation machine that will formulate your citations according to
your system of citation when you put in the required information. It
is available at: http://citationmachine.net/index.php.
Other considerations here are:
proofreading for typos and misspellings, section order and
numbering
preparing a title page with the necessary information,
check your grammar and punctuation using a grammar book
(do not rely on the word processors to ensure:
3.5
correct tense, subject/verb agreement, verb in every

sentence
proper word order
use of appropriate articles
your prepositions
proper punctuation.

As with any other job that you need to accomplish, an essay can be
broken into manageable tasks and incorporated into your schedule,
so that it is an efficient and effective process with sufficient time to
ensure quality. Working backwards from your final deadline,
calculate how many weeks you have to do all the 10 steps
identified above. As discussed above, the University of Minnesotas
assignment calculator can do this for you with dates and the steps
outlined above which, as we noted, can be further grouped into the
categories of the pre-writing, writing and revising/editing
processes.
Think about how you write best. Is it under deadline, with no time
to waste? Or is research the part that takes more time for you?
Based on your time available and your personal strengths, prepare
a time and action plan if you find that the calculator does not work
for you, with specified goals and deliverables. Stick as best you can
to this, treating interim deadlines as seriously as the final one.
Allow yourself sufficient time for each part, including revisions and
proofreading. For a very short tutorial on backwards and forwards
essay planning, see Planning Your Essay, (Northern Territory
University, Australia), available at:
http://learnline.cdu.edu.au/studyskills/as/as_es_pl.html
63
3.5.1
Series of essay tasks for time management planning

Preliminaries
early brainstorming, reflection and discussion with others
working out what is required
Research
working out which research methods to use
working out what information/data i need
assembling information (to read, gather data, experiment)
digesting and reflecting on the information collected.
Organising the content
grouping and organising information
selecting what to include.
Writing draft versions
Writing draft
Reviewing and revising draft
Likely number of drafts.
Completing the task
writing up the references
writing the final draft
checking through the work
final deadline.
64
Chapter 4: The structure and organisation of

an essay
Introduction
An essay is a piece of writing comprising any number of paragraphs
that discusses, describes or analyses one topic. The ability to write
good essays is one that will be valuable throughout not only your
education, but also your career. Your legal exams may comprise
short essays; a research report or a white paper prepared for work
is merely an extended essay as it will follow a standard composition
format for an essay as discussed further below: title, introduction,
body and conclusion.
The wording of the title or question presented dictates the aim of
the essay. This should be defined at the beginning, but can vary
greatly according to the type of essay. As discussed about an essay
by the Gallaudet University (US) English Tutoring and Writing
Centre:
It can discuss a subject directly or indirectly, seriously or
humorously. It can describe personal opinions, or just report
information. An essay can be written from any perspective, but
essays are most commonly written in the first person (I), or third
person (subjects that can be substituted with the he, she, it, or they
pronouns). There are many different kinds of essays. The following
are some of the most common ones:
Descriptive: The descriptive essay provides details about how
something looks feels, tastes, smells, makes one feel, or sounds. It
can also describe what something is, or how something happened.
These essays generally use a lot of sensory details. The essay could
be a list-like description that provides point by point details. Or it
could function as a story, keeping the reader interested in the plot
and theme of the event described.
Definition: A definition essay attempts to define a specific term.
It could try to pin down the meaning of a specific word, or define
an abstract concept. The analysis goes deeper than a simple
dictionary definition; it should attempt to explain why the term is
defined as such. It could define the term directly, giving no
information other than the explanation of the term. Or it could
imply the definition of the term, telling a story that requires the
reader to infer the meaning.
Compare/contrast: The compare/contrast essay discusses the
similarities and differences between two things, people, concepts,
places, etc. The essay could be an unbiased discussion, or an
attempt to convince the reader of the benefits of one thing,
person, or concept. It could also be written simply to entertain the
reader, or to arrive at an insight into human nature. The essay
65

could discuss both similarities and differences or it could just
focus on one or the other. A comparison essay usually discusses
the similarities between two things, while the contrast essay
discusses the differences.
Cause/effect: The cause/effect essay explains why or how some
event happened and what resulted from the event. This essay is a
study of the relationship between two or more events or
experiences. The essay could discuss both causes and effects, or it
could simply address one or the other. A cause essay usually
discusses the reasons why something happened. An effect essay
discusses what happens after a specific event or circumstance.
Narrative: The narrative essay tells a story. It can also be called
a short story. Generally, the narrative essay is conversational in
style and tells of a personal experience. It is most commonly
written in the first person (uses I). This essay could tell of a single,
life-shaping event, or simply a mundane daily experience.
Process: A process essay describes how something is done. It
generally explains actions that should be performed in a series. It
can explain in detail how to accomplish a specific task or it can
show how an individual came to a certain personal awareness.
The essay could be in the form of step-by-step instructions, or in
story form, with the instructions/explanations subtly given along
the way.
Argumentative: An argumentative essay is one that attempts
to persuade the reader to the writers point of view. The writer
can either be serious or funny, but always tries to convince the
reader of the validity of his opinion. The essay may argue openly,
or it may attempt to subtly persuade the reader by using irony or
sarcasm.
Critical: A critical essay analyses the strengths, weaknesses and
methods of someone elses work. Generally, these essays begin
with a brief overview of the main points of the text, movie, or
piece of art, followed by an analysis of the works meaning. It
should then discuss how well the author/creator accomplishes
his/her goals and makes his points. A critical essay can be written
about another essay, story, book, poem, movie, or work of art.
English works! Guide to different kinds of essays, available at:

http://depts.gallaudet.edu/englishworks/writing/essay.html#
process.
4.1
Essay structure
Various types of essays may be structured in different ways,
although it can be said that all essays should have a beginning,
middle and an end. A further discussion of identifying essay types
with a suggested organisational structure in the context of shorter,
unseen examination essays is presented subsequently.
However, with longer, more formal essays, such as research papers,
the objective will often be achieved by using other peoples ideas,
presented in your own way, about the topic. Here, a referencing
system needs to be used, incorporating these people and their ideas
into in the essay. Gillett, A.Using English for academic purposes: a
66
Chapter 4: The structure and organisation of an essay
(School of Combined Studies, University of Hertfordshire), suggests

that such essays should have the following overall structure:
4.1.1
Preliminaries
Title page
Main text
Introduction
Main body
Conclusion
End matter
References
Preliminaries
There should be a title page at the beginning of every essay. This
should give the following information sufficient to identify:
your name
essay title
company/department/office
date
references.
Your employer or client may have further stylistic/metadata
conventions.
4.1.2
Main text
Essays written in English are usually linear in structure. This means
that they commence at the beginning (the introduction), and
continue through to the end (the conclusion), without any
deviation or reiteration. Every section of the essay should
contribute towards the thread of the argument or development of
analysis or the story. The line should be unambiguous and
methodical. Every paragraph should cover only one key point and
should clearly lead to the next.
A. Gillett, Using English for academic purposes: a guide for
Combined Studies, University of Hertfordshire) suggests that an
essay comprises of three main parts:
an introduction
a main body
a conclusion.
The introduction
According to Gillett, the introduction usually consists of two parts:
A few general statements on the subject. These serve to provide
a background to the essay and attract the attention of the
reader. The statement should explain why the essay is being
written and may include a definition of terms used in the essay.
A statement of the specific sections of the topic, together with
an indication of how the subject matter will be undertaken in
order for the matter to be addressed.
67
The main purpose of the essay should be introduced and it should

also address the question.
This is a typical introduction that many scholarly essays would
follow. It is a good template, especially for those unsure of their
creative abilities or just starting out. However, as Gallaudet
University notes, there can be many different types of effective
introductions:
There are actually many different ways to begin an essay; therefore,
the format of the introductory paragraph(s) is flexible. Often, essays
begin with a general introductory statement. This statement could
be an anecdote, description, striking statistic, a fact that will lead to
your thesis, etc. Beginning this way, you will use the first few
sentences to prepare, or lay the groundwork for your thesis, and
use the last sentence of the first paragraph to present your thesis.
However, your thesis statement can be anywhere in your
introduction. In a longer essay, you can even wait to present your
thesis until the second paragraph or later. Also for a longer essay,
you should begin to introduce a few supporting ideas in the first
couple of paragraphs. These supporting ideas should be the topics
that you will discuss in full in your body paragraphs. For a short
essay, presenting supporting ideas during the introduction is
optional.
Gallaudet University, supra, The Structure of an Essay, available

at:
http://depts.gallaudet.edu/englishworks/writing/structure.html.
The main body
The main body will consist of arguments and ideas to support your
thesis or answer the question presented. It should be laid out in one
or more paragraphs. Every paragraph expands upon a sub-division
of the topic. The paragraphs contain the main facts and arguments,
together with illustrations and/or examples. The paragraphs should
be clearly linked to connect the ideas. So the use of a transition
sentence or phrase may be helpful to keep the reader on track with
where you are now going with your thoughts. The purpose of the
essay must be made obvious and the reader should be able to
follow its progress. The use of outline formats with headings may
aid this. (See part 1 chapter 4 of this guide.)
The conclusion
The conclusion contains the writers final statements. It should
reiterate the points made in the introduction and draw together the
issues comprised in the main text. It should also describe the
significance of the conclusions and the general ideas expressed in
the essay.
The conclusion should also demonstrate that the purpose of the
essay has been achieved and that the topic has been clearly
addressed. As suggested by the Gallaudet Writing Centre,
The form of your conclusion, like your introduction, is flexible. One
good way to conclude a paper is to begin the last paragraph with a
statement that reflects on what has been stated and proved, without
repeating it exactly. Then you should briefly restate your key points
to gently remind the reader how well you proved your thesis. Your
conclusion should end with a statement or idea that leaves a strong
impression and provokes further thought.
68
Chapter 4: The structure and organisation of an essay
The structure of an essay, supra.

A further tutorial on writing effective introductions and conclusions
to your essay is Taylor, D. Guide to writing introductions and
conclusions available at:
http://depts.gallaudet.edu/englishworks/writing/introconslu.html
Template for organisational structure
An organisation plan for a research essay is suggested here by
Gillet, A. Using English for academic purposes: a guide for
combined studies, University of Hertfordshire).
I. Introduction
General statement
Organisation statement
II. Main body

A. Introductory sentence
Point 1
Point 2
Point 3
...
Concluding Sentence
B. Introductory Sentence
Point 1
Point 2
Point 3
...
Concluding sentence
C. Introductory sentence
Point 1
Point 2
Point 3
...
Concluding sentence
III. Conclusion
Recall issues in introduction
Draw together main points
Final comment.
69
4.1.3
End matter
A list of references should be incorporated at the end of the essay.
References must include full information about the resources used
when writing the essay. See Writing a list of references for more
information on the reference list.
4.2
Organising other essay types

The introduction to this chapter noted that there can be many types
of essays and described a few of them. The purpose of an essay will
usually determine its organisation. This purpose, especially in
examination scenarios, can usually be determined by reference to
the way the question is posited. Both aspects, with regard to
descriptive essays, argument essays and compare and contrast
essays are explored in a tutorial by Gillet, A. Academic writing:
organising the answer. This includes helpful organisational charts
for each type. The tutorial is available at:
http://www.uefap.com/writing/writfram.htm. Pay close attention
to the words that signal what type of essay it is. These will be very
helpful for understanding what your examination questions are
looking for and will help you with the appropriate structure for an
answer, even if not a formal essay.
70
Chapter 5: Writing paragraphs
Introduction
As discussed in the previous chapters, an essay is a writing on a
single topic. However, if your essay were one continuous block of
text, it would be very difficult for any reader to follow your
argument. They would lose their place on the page, find it difficult
to follow the logic and would likely end up re-reading sections by
mistake. That is why essays always need paragraphs.
Paragraphs are used to divide up the ideas in an essay in a
meaningful way. The ideas in the sentences of a single paragraph
should belong together, beginning with a topic sentence followed
by supporting and concluding sentences, as discussed below. There
is no set rule about the length of a paragraph other than that
regarding a single idea. When the topic changes significantly, a new
paragraph should be introduced.
That said, ideas should flow from one paragraph to another so that
each new concept is introduced in a logical order. Although each
paragraph will have different content and function, each one must
continue to develop an idea within the essay topic. In other
words, each successive paragraph must add information,
explanation, examples and illustrations to the central theme or idea
until the theme is fully developed.
As you add each paragraph to your essay, think about how effective
the new paragraph is in supporting the train of thought you started
in the paragraphs before it. If the new paragraph does not help to
sustain your central point, it may be that it is in the wrong place.
Alternatively, it may be that it needs further work, so that it
conveys exactly the point you are seeking to make.
Paragraphs are not just there to benefit the reader. If you learn to
use them well, they will help you to structure your own ideas. The
following examines the structure of a paragraph.
5.1
Topic sentences
A topic sentence introduces the main idea of each paragraph. It tells
what it is about. Also called a focusing sentence, it is important as
the main idea or focus needs to be summarised somewhere in the
paragraph using just one sentence. While this is usually at the
beginning of the paragraph, it can, however, come at the end or
even in the middle of the paragraph. The rest of the paragraph
generally expands this idea, with information and evidence in the
form of explanations and illustrations or by argument. The topic
sentence, thus, performs a dual function, as explained here:
71

It might be helpful to think of a topic sentence as working in two
directions simultaneously. It relates the paragraph to the essays
thesis, and thereby acts as a signpost for the argument of the paper
as a whole, but it also defines the scope of the paragraph itself.
Turner, D. Writing topic sentences in HyperGrammar (University

of Ottowa, Writing Centre 1996), available at:
http://www.uottawa.ca/academic/arts/writcent/hypergrammar/
partopic.html
Turner suggests that the writer also think of the topic sentences as
a mini thesis statement one that controls the content and flow of
the paragraph. His proof of this comprises an interesting exercise in
topic sentences and is worth reading. The web site also has a good
exercise on selecting topic sentences for paragraphs. See Review:
topic sentences available at:
http://www.uottawa.ca/academic/arts/writcent/hypergrammar/
rvtopic.html
Having explored what a topic sentence is and what it does, how do
you go about learning how to write one? Well, a very good place to
learn how to explain a complex idea in as few words as possible is a
newspaper. Journalists are trained how to explain who did what,
when, where and why, in a way that grabs the readers attention.
Spend some time looking at the New York Times online
(www.nytimes.com) (free, but registration required) or another
good newspaper. Highlight the topic sentences. Identify both the
topic and the main idea contained there. This exercise is
encouraged and illustrated by Anker, S. Writing your topic
sentence or thesis statement: making your point in Real writing
(Bedford St. Martins Publishers 2004) chapter 3, p.32 third edition
at:
http://bedfordstmartins.com/book.asp?disc=&id_product=114900
0258&compType=SAMCH).
You may find the following, more academically orientated
examples of topic sentences helpful. They have been selected by
Gillett, A. Using English for academic purposes: a guide for
Combined Studies, University of Hertfordshire).
Example 1
The population as a whole was unevenly distributed. The north was
particularly thinly settled and the east densely populated, but even
in counties like Warwickshire where there were substantial
populations, some woodland areas were sparsely peopled. There
was already relatively dense settlement in the prime arable areas of
the country like Norfolk, Suffolk and Leicestershire. Modern
estimates of Englands total population, extrapolated from
Domesday patterns, vary between one and three million.
Briggs, A. A social history of England (1983) p.58.
72
Example 2
Atoms of all elements consist of a central nucleus surrounded by a
cloud containing one or more electrons. The electrons can be
thought of as occupying a series of well-defined shells. The
behaviour of a particular element depends largely on the number of
electrons in its outermost shells. Other factors, such as the total
number of electron shells, also play a part in determining behaviour
but it is the dominance of the outer electron configuration that
underlies the periodic law and justifies the grouping of the elements
into groups or families.
The sciences: Michael Beazley encyclopaedias (1980), p.118.
Example 3
In general, Victorian families were big. In 1851 their average size
was 4.7, roughly the same as it had been in the seventeenth
century, but the 1 million couples who married during the 1860s,
which the historian G. M. Young described as the best decade in
English history to have been brought up in, raised the figure to 6.2.
Only one out of eight families had one or two children, while one in
six had ten or more, so that the counsel little children should be
seen and not heard was prudent rather than simply authoritarian
advice.
Briggs, A. (1983) A social history of England, p.244.
Example 4
The spoken word (whether conversation or oratory or the coy
mixture of the two which is now familiar to us on television) is a
very different thing from the written word. What is effective or
allowable or desirable in the one may be quite the reverse in the
other, and the extempore speaker cannot correct himself by revision
as the writer can and should. It is therefore not fair to take a report
of a speech or of an oral statement and criticise it as if it were a
piece of considered writing.
Gowers, E. (1973) The complete plain words, p.26.

Another good tutorial with examples of academic topic sentences
can be found at Writing, topic sentence (Northern Territory
University, Australia) available at:
http://learnline.cdu.edu.au/studyskills/wr/wr_pa_ts.html.
5.2
A paragraph should have at least several sentences that follow on
from the topic sentence. As stated above, it should develop further
the main idea by explanation, illustration or proof. In your
planning, you should have identified these details or points of
development and their order. The supporting sentences should
make those points in that order. See Writing: supporting sentences
in the above tutorial from the Northern Territory University for
73
additional explanation and illustrations of supporting sentences.

This is available at:
http://learnline.cdu.edu.au/studyskills/wr/wr_pa_ss.html
5.3
Concluding sentence
The concluding sentence of a paragraph can serve more than one
function. As noted:
A concluding sentence rounds off or concludes the paragraph. In
many instances, the concluding sentence may also provide a bridge
or pointer to the content of the next paragraph. The concluding
sentence rounds off the paragraph by drawing attention back to the
topic sentence as well as setting the scene for a shift to the next
point.
Writing, concluding sentence (Northern Territory University,

Australia) available at:
http://learnline.cdu.edu.au/studyskills/wr/wr_pa_cs.html.
5.4

As you can see, the role of the various sentences within the
paragraph is to ensure the ordered and continuous flow of
information within the paragraph, as well from paragraph to
paragraph. To enable the reader to follow this flow more easily, it is
important to structure your information clearly and signal exactly
what you want to say by the use of signalling words.
How signalling words can be used to do this is shown by the
following examples from Gillett, A. Signalling:
[I]f you want to tell your reader that your line of argument is going
to change, make it clear.
The Bristol 167 was to be Britains great new advance on
American types such as the Lockheed Constellation and Douglas
DC-6, which did not have the range to fly the Atlantic non-stop. It
was also to be the largest aircraft ever built in Britain. However,
even by the end of the war, the design had run into serious
difficulties.
If you think that one sentence gives reasons for something in
another sentence, make it explicit.
While an earlier generation of writers had noted this feature of
the period, it was not until the recent work of Cairncross that the
significance of this outflow was realized. Partly this was because
the current account deficit appears much smaller in current
(1980s) data than it was thought to be by contemporaries.
If you think two ideas are almost the same, say so.
Marx referred throughout his work to other systems than the
capitalist system, especially those which he knew from the history
of Europe to have preceded capitalism; systems such as feudalism,
where the relation of production was characterized by the
personal relation of the feudal lord and his serf and a relation of
subordination which came from the lords control of the land.
Similarly, Marx was interested in slavery and in the classical
74
Indian and Chinese social systems, or in those systems where the

ties of local community are all important.
If you intend your sentence to give extra information, make it clear.
He is born into a family, he marries into a family, and he
becomes the husband and father of his own family. In addition,
he has a definite place of origin and more relatives than he knows
what to do with, and he receives a rudimentary education at the
Canadian Mission School.
If you are giving examples, do it explicitly.
This has sometimes led to disputes between religious and secular
clergy, between orders and bishops. For example, in the
Northern context, the previous bishop of Down and Connor, Dr
Philbin, refused for most of his period of leadership in Belfast to
have Jesuits visiting or residing in his diocese.
Signalling words can convey a whole range of relationships

between one sentence and the next or paragraphs. Chronological
order, cause and effect, similarity, contrast, the beginning and the
end can all be clued by words. This is nicely detailed in Gilletts
tutorial with lists of words provided for each type of signal and
examples of how they are used. Spend some time reviewing these
and make sure to bookmark them for your easy use. See Gillett, A.
Signalling, available at:
http://www.uefap.co.uk/writing/parag/par_sig.htm
5.5
Revising paragraphs
As with all writing, you can usually improve it by review and edit.
You might try to rewrite your topic sentence to make it clearer and
more concise. You should check that your paragraph meets all of
the discussed criteria:
It relates only to a single idea that is controlled by the topic
sentence
subsequent sentences further explain, illustrate or prove that
single idea
the order of thoughts flows logically.
Make sure that you do not have one-sentence paragraphs, no
matter how long they are. Such sentences can usually serve as topic
sentences instead.
Other suggestions for how you might add to or review your work
from another point of view can be found in the following helpful
tutorials on revising/editing writing:
ABCs of the writing process revising-searching for things to fix,
available at:
http://www.angelfire.com/wi/writingprocess/revising.html.
Revising/editing/proofreading OWL (Purdue University), available
at
http://www.owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/general/#revising.
75
Notes
76
Chapter 6: Attributes of academic and

professional writing
Introduction
The last two chapters examined the process and organisation of
writing an essay. These pointed out that there are many types of
essays and that their organisation is usually dictated by their
purpose. The basic essay compositional structure was identified as
the component used as well in research papers and other academic
and professional works of writing.
You will recall that this is a linear structure, consisting of one main
topic, with individual sections contributing to the whole that has a
beginning, middle and end. It should be informative and avoid
deviation from the central theme or repetition of ideas.
However, such academic and professional writing needs to be
further described in order to distinguish it from other types of
communications, including the spoken word, personal and other
more casual writing.
This chapter does that. It first examines six attributes of academic
and professional writing considered important by some writing
authorities. It then explores how these attributes are achieved. At
the same time, it presents some counterpoints to this writing style
that some have labelled the official style for those writers seeking
to find their voice.
6.1
Six attributes of scholarly writing

According to Gillett, A. Using English for academic purposes: a
(School of Combined Studies, University of Hertfordshire), there
are six main features of academic1 writing that are often discussed.
Academic writing is to some extent: complex, formal, objective,
explicit, hedged and responsible. The following briefly examines
each in turn.
While professional legal writing can take
specified forms, such as memoranda of law,

and require the use of specific legal citation
form or sources as well as the application
of legal reasoning, each of these attributes
applies. Therefore academic writing will
be used to encompass all such writing.
77
1.
Complexity
Spoken language is more simplistic than written language,2 which

contains a larger vocabulary, longer words and greater complexity.
More phrases containing nouns, rather than verbs, are used.
2.
Formality
This distinction between spoken and
written language is itself a bit simplistic.

Each permits many styles and each has
potential for overlap, with some speech
noted to be very written-like, some writing
Academic writing is generally formal in structure, therefore when

writing an essay colloquial words and expressions should not
generally be used.
very spoken-like See Chafe, W. and J.
3.
for the Study of Writing, 1987).
Objectivity
In written language, emphasis should be placed upon the

information contained within the text as opposed to any personal
references to yourself or the reader. Written language is therefore
more objective than spoken language.
4.
Explicitness
The writer must be explicit about the relationship between the

various sections that connect the text. Signalling words can be used
to make the connections more explicit.
5.
Hedging
In academic writing, the writer must evaluate their viewpoint on

the subject matter and the strength of the claim being made,
resulting in cautious or even vague writing. Although there are
different methods of achieving this aim, linguists refer generally to
these techniques as a hedge. This usage may not seem apparent at
first glance from any of the meanings of hedge. See Merriam
Webster Unabridged online dictionary, available at: http://www.mw.com. It is likely, however, found in the shades of meaning and
usage derived from both protecting oneself and evading risk or
commitment in that the writer commits no more in evaluation than
can reasonably be established.
6.
Responsibility
Relatedly, the writer must be able to provide evidence and

justification to support any claims made within the text. Also, the
writer must show an understanding of the resources used.
6.2
6.2.1
Complexity
Written language is relatively more complex than spoken language
(Biber, 1988; Biber, Johansson, Leech, Conrad and Finegan, 1999;
Chafe, 1982; Cook, 1997; Halliday, 1989). This is due both to
grammatical and lexical, or language content, complexity when
contrasted with spoken language. Each is addressed here.
(a)
Grammatical complexity
One reason for the complexity of academic writing, according to A.
Gillett, supra, is because written language is grammatically more
complex than spoken language. Such complexity of written over
spoken language consists of the use in the former of more:
subordinate clauses
that/to complement clauses
78
Danielewicz, Technical Report no. 5:

Properties of written and spoken
language (The Writing Project Natl. Center
Chapter 6: Attributes of academic and professional writing
long sequences of prepositional phrases

participle forms of verbs
passive tenses.
The following will consider each of these five grammatical
categories in turn.
1
Subordinate clauses/embedding
Subordinate clauses are those embedded as a component of a

matrix sentence and that function like a noun, adjective or adverb
in the resulting complex sentence. See Summer Institute of
Linguistics, glossary, available at:
http://www.sil.org/linguistics/GlossaryOfLinguisticTerms/WhatIsA
SubordinateClause.htm
These are examples of embedded subordinate clauses:
There are several factors which help to prolong this period to
perhaps three or four times that in the male.
The other way in which the economic aspects of military
expenditure were presented was in the form of the public
expenditure costs.
The family establishes a variety of bases for refuges which seem
to be used at different times of the year.
See Gillett, A. supra, at:
http://www.uefap.co.uk/writing/feature/complex.htm#comp
For a further tutorial on subordinate clauses, see Clauses: the
essential building blocks (Capital Community College Foundation),
available at: http://webster.commnet.edu/grammar/clauses.htm.
2
Complement clauses
Complement clauses are a type of subordinate clause characterised

by a complete thought that comprises the subject and direct or
indirect object of a verb. These can be of the following types:
1. That clauses:
This conforms conveniently with Maslows (1970) claim that
human motivation is related to a hierarchy of human needs.
It follows that if the Labour Government is to secure
acceptance of its economic package, it has to secure the support
of MPs from either the Liberal or the Conservative party.
See Gillett, A. supra.
2. To clauses:
Britains apparent ability to rally Commonwealth support at
Chicago seemed to the Americans to be evidence of Britains
continued world power.
Ibid.
3. Of + -ing clauses:
The possibility of increasing dollar receipts was coupled with a
belief that Africa could be a strategic centre for British power.
Ibid.
For a further tutorial on complement clauses, see What is a
complement clause? (Summer Institute of Linguistics) available at:
79
http://www.sil.org/linguistics/GlossaryOfLinguisticTerms/WhatIsA
ComplementClause.htm
3
Sequences of prepositional phrases
A prepositional phrase consists of a preposition, a noun or pronoun

that serves as the object of the preposition, and, more often than
not, an adjective or two that modifies the object. Garden of
phrases, (Capital Community College Foundation), available at:
http://webster.commnet.edu/grammar/phrases.htm. In academic
writing, sequences of prepositional phrases are common. Examples
of these in the sentence below are italicised:
This article analyses the constitutional aspects behind the formation
of the first and second National Governments, examining in
particular the role of the king in the formation of the two
governments.
Gillett, A. supra.
4
Participles
A participle is a verbal that is used as an adjective and most often
ends in -ing or -ed. The term verbal indicates that a participle,
like the other two kinds of verbals, is based on a verb and therefore
expresses action or a state of being. However, since they function as
adjectives, participles modify nouns or pronouns. There are two
types of participles: present participles and past participles. Present
participles end in -ing. Past participles end in -ed, -en, -d, -t, or
-n, as in the words asked, eaten, saved, dealt, and seen.
Verbals: gerunds, participles and infinitives, (Purdue University

Online Writing Lab) available at:
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/grammar/g_verbals.html
Formal written English uses verbs less than spoken English. Verbals
such as gerunds and participles allow verbs to be used nominally or
adjectively. Examples of participles are:
Similar temptations overcame philosophers concerned with
establishing a secure base for individual responsibility.
The Egyptians regarded time as a succession of recurring
phases.
Doubts as to the proper division of property at death, as well as
rights between partners living together, were resolved by having
legal rules prescribing a formula.
It was only to be tolerated in a controlled and formalised
context.
A frequent change found in proper names is syllable loss.
Gillett, A. supra.
For a further tutorial on verbals, see Verbals, Purdue OWL web
site, supra.
5
Passive verbs
With the passive voice, the action is done to the subject of the
sentence. There is always some form of the verb to be. Such usage
is more common in formal English, especially writing, in contrast to
spoken English where speakers often use the active tense describing
the actions of subjects, such as people, somebody, they, we or
you even when they do not know who this is. Compare the
following two sentences:
80
Theyre installing the new computer system next month.

The new computer system is being installed next month. (More
formal.)
Ibid.
It is true that passive verbs have a place in academic writing.
However, as discussed in the following excerpt, this usage is not an
absolute rule. Clarity, coherence and interest may suggest the use
of the active voice.
Sometimes the use of passive voice can create awkward sentences
Also, overuse of passive voice throughout an essay can cause
your prose to seem flat and uninteresting. In scientific writing,
however, passive voice is more readily accepted since using it allows
one to write without using personal pronouns or the names of
particular researchers as the subjects of sentences (see the third
example above). This practice helps to create the appearance of an
objective, fact-based discourse because writers can present research
and conclusions without attributing them to particular agents.
Instead, the writing appears to convey information that is not
limited or biased by individual perspectives or personal interests.
In most non-scientific writing situations, the active voice is
preferable to the passive for the majority of your sentences. Even in
scientific writing, overuse of passive voice or use of passive voice in
long and complicated sentences can cause readers to lose interest or
to become confused. Sentences in active voice are generally
though not always clearer and more direct than those in passive
voice.
Active and passive verbs (Purdue University Online Writing Lab)

available at:
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/grammar/g_actpass.html
For a further tutorial on the difference between active and passive
verb forms with examples and exercises, see the Purdue OWL,
supra.
(b)
Lexical complexity
Written texts have longer, more complex words and phrases than
spoken English. As will be explained, they have more:
nominalisations
noun-based phrases
lexical variation.
The following now discusses in turn the three types of lexical
complexity attributes listed.
Written texts are also more lexically dense compared to spoken
language. This means that they have proportionately more lexical
words than grammatical words, that is, more words that carry
meaning compared to those that give reference to structure.
1
Nominalisation
Nominalisation is the process of changing a verb (action) to a noun

(thing). For example, judge becomes judgement, walked, a walk
and admire, admiration. Formal written English uses nouns more
than verbs. The following show the conversion and usage
distinctions:
81

Verb: This information enables us to formulate precise questions.
Noun: This information enables the formulation of precise
questions.
Verb: There was evidence that children appeared to be treated
differently.
Noun: There appeared to be evidence of differential treatment of
children.
Verb: This is reflected in the fact that we admire people who have
made something of their lives, sometimes against great odds, and
that we judge in somewhat disappointment those who merely drift
through life.
Noun: This is reflected in our admiration for people who have
made something of their lives, sometimes against great odds, and in
our somewhat disappointed judgment of those who merely drift
through life.
Verb: All airfields in the country would be nationalised, and the
government would continue to develop of new aircraft as
recommended by the Brabazon Committee.
Noun: All airfields in the country would be nationalised, and the
government would continue with the development of new
aircraft as recommended by the Brabazon Committee.
Gillett, A. supra available at:

http://www.owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/grammar/g_verbals
.html.
Suffixes are generally used to nominalise verbs. The most common
is -tion. For example, alteration, resignation. However, others used
frequently are:
-ity: ability, similarity, complexity
-ness: blindness, darkness, preparedness;
-ment: development, encouragement
-ship: friendship
-age: parentage
-ery: robbery, bribery
-al: arrival
-ance: assistance, resemblance.
How and whether to nominalise is again a choice that the writer
makes based on the nature of the work and whether it adds to
clarity and coherence or some other quality sought (e.g. objective
format). For a tutorial that shows further how nominalisation can
contribute to formal writing, see Academic writing: nominalisation
(UniLearning, University of Wollongong, Australia)
http://unilearning.uow.edu.au/academic/3b.html.
2
Noun-based phrases
As stated, formal written English uses nouns more than verbs. This
includes noun-based phrases such as the prepositional phrases
associated with nominalisation as discussed above. An example of
such phrase is:
Like all other forms of life, we human beings are the product of
evolution.
82
Like all other forms of life, we human beings are the product of
how we have evolved.
Another example is:

Premack used a set of plastic chips to teach a chimpanzee named
Sarah the meaning of a set of symbols.
Premack used a set of plastic chips to teach a chimpanzee named
Sarah what a set of symbols mean.
Gillett, A. supra.
For formal academic writing, some would say that in the above
examples, the noun-based phrase evolution is to be preferred to
the verb evolve, and the wh clause and the meaning of the
symbols, to what the symbols mean. See A. Gillett, supra.
However, this is not universal advice or a hard and fast rule. See
How to edit, (Daemen College online writing lab) (advising that
for clarity and coherence, writers convert noun-based phrases to
action verbs), available at:
http://distance.daemen.edu/owl/coherence.html.
Professor Michael Harvey suggests that:
More than a few academic writers become so burdened by the
terms and concepts they wish to use that their writing becomes a
frozen slurry of actionless nouns piled one atop another.
Actions and verbs in The nuts and bolts of college writing

(Washington College), available at:
http://nutsandbolts.washcoll.edu/clarity.html
He gives the following example of academic writing dense with
nouns but with a lack of clarity so profound that whatever
brilliant insights the author may have are lost on readers:
Indeed, dialectical critical realism may be seen under the aspect of
Foucauldian strategic reversalof the unholy trinity of
Parmenidean/Platonic/Aristotelean provenance; of the CartesianLockean-Humean-Kantian paradigm, of foundationalisms (in
practice, fideistic foundationalisms) and irrationalisms (in practice,
capricious exercises of the will-to-power or some other ideologically
and/or psycho-somatically buried source) new and old alike; of the
primordial failing of western philosophy, ontological monovalence,
and its close ally, the epistemic fallacy with its ontic dual; of the
analytic problematic laid down by Plato, which Hegel served only to
replicate in his actualist monovalent analytic reinstatement in
transfigurative reconciling dialectical connection, while in his
hubristic claims for absolute idealism he inaugurated the Comtean,
Kierkegaardian and Nietzschean eclipses of reason, replicating the
fundaments of positivism through its transmutation route to the
superidealism of a Baudrillard.
Ibid.
Objectivity is one thing opacity another!
3
Lexical variation
Compounding words and adding affixes to existing words is a

common way that lexical variety and complexity is achieved in
academic writing. As Gillett describes:
83

Adding affixes to existing words (the base) to form new words is
common in academic English. Prefixes are added to the front of the
base (like dislike), whereas suffixes are added to the end of the
base (active activate). Prefixes usually do not change the class of
the base word, but suffixes usually do change the class of the word.
The most common prefixes used to form new verbs in academic

English are: re-, dis-, over-, un-, mis-,out-. The most
common suffixes are: -ise, -en,-ate, -(i)fy. By far the most
common affix in academic English is -ise.
Gillett, A. Lexical complexity in academic writing, supra, available
at: http://www.uefap.co.uk/writing/writfram.htm.
This web site provides an extensive listing of affixes and their
resulting forms and meanings that could prove very helpful to
building lexical variety, a measure of language fluency and
mastery.
6.2.2
Formality
The tone of a work should be suitable to its purpose and audience
and, perhaps, as with science, its discipline. Gillett suggests that
this means in an academic essay, the writer should ordinarily avoid:
colloquial words and expressions: stuff, a lot of, thing, sort
of
abbreviated forms: cant, doesnt, shouldnt
two-word verbs: put off, bring up
sub-headings, numbering and bullet-points in formal essays,
unless the stylistic convention of the journal or publisher
dictate but use them in reports
asking questions.
However, as with the other attributes of academic writing, there
may be stylistic, editorial or substantive reasons to do otherwise.
Finding the right voice or setting the proper balance between plain
speaking and formality is something that each writer must do and
that novice writers may struggle with. Some commentators have
strong negative feelings about the formal writing style as the
following makes plain.
Everything weve been talking aboutobfuscation, nominalisations,
the passive voice, long wordy constructions that muddy up
questions of who did whathave been neatly labelled the official
style by Richard Lanham, a well-known scholar and teacher of
writing: The official style comes in many dialectsgovernment,
military, social scientific, lab scientific, MBA flapdoodlebut all
exhibit the same basic attributes. They all build on the same central
imbalance, a dominance of nouns and an atrophy of verbs.
The official style is especially prevalent in bureaucracies, because
their impersonality, rules, and formal procedures make expressions
of individualism risky. Even when its not really necessary for
protection or camouflage, most people within large organizations
who have to write serious professional stufflaws, reports, policy
statements, grant applications, police reports, and so on
automatically turn to the official style, with its pompous, windy,
inert prose.
84
Harvey, M. The nuts and bolts of college writing (Washington

College), available at:
http://nutsandbolts.washcoll.edu/plainstyle.htm
Although Professor Harvey eschews rigid formality in writing in
many ways, he does not disregard the importance of setting the
necessary tone that he calls diction, a concept with significance for
legal writers. This, he describes in the following:
Perhaps the first rhetorical choice a writer makesand all writers
make this choice, whether they realise it or notis diction, or what
words to use. Different words, even if they ostensibly mean the
same thing, have different connotations. And different audiences
have different expectations about appropriate diction. Academic
writing requires a more formal diction than everyday talk or
journalism, and within academe writing in the natural sciences
requires a more formal diction than writing in the humanities. Im
no great fan of formality in writing, but on the other hand one does
need to know and respect the conventions of academe and other
professional forums for serious
In general, the more specialised training a profession requires, the
more it develops its own jargon as a way of differentiating those
who have acquired the proper training from those who have not.
Twist a policemans arm, for instance, and you still probably
couldnt get him to say car or robber or gun or hit or saw: long
professional training has habituated him to vehicle, alleged
perpetrator, firearm, strike, and observed. This kind of Official Style
diction is all around us. Students tend to learn it as the epitome of
adult discourse, and to go too far in incorporating it into their
own writing.
My general advice regarding diction is to prefer plain to fancy
unless the scholarly field expects a particular word. Since
appropriate choices vary within specific disciplines, and sometimes
between individual scholars, my suggestion to students is to locate
model authors within their chosen fields, and study those authors
diction and other rhetorical strategies.
Harvey, M. supra.
This advice follows the earlier discussion in this section concerning
the use of legal wording where it is appropriate and necessary and,
as Professor Harvey notes, where it would be expected.
6.2.3
Objectivity
Objectivity in writing means that the main emphasis should not be
on the writer but on the information given and the arguments
made. Gillett suggests that:
This is related to the basic nature of academic study and academic
writing, in particular. Nobody really wants to know what you
think or believe. They want to know what you have studied and
learned and how this has led you to your various conclusions. The
thoughts and beliefs should be based on your lectures, reading,
discussion and research and it is important to make this clear.
Gillett, A. Objectivity in Academic writing, available at:

http://www.uefap.co.uk/writing/writfram.htm
85
This web site has a clear tutorial with guidelines and examples of
objective writing.
Despite his much less harsh tone, Harveys guidance partly follows
Gilletts:
Are the first and second person (I, me, my; we, us, our; you, your)
appropriate in academic writing? As for the first person, yes, as long
as it is used properly. It occurs in much writing even in the hard
sciences. Scientists frequently speak of our research and our
findings (though some teachers and editors agree with Mark
Twains disdain for the editorial we). As for the first person
singular, one finds it even in the most serious scientific writing. E.
O. Wilson, a prominent Harvard biologist, notes his formal use of
the first person, but also the limits he observed: very little emotion
was expressed beyond the occasional I was interested in the
problem of . . . or It turned out, to my surprise, that. . . . (citation
omitted) Thus both sides of the debate over the propriety of the first
person are in a sense right: it's okay to use I even in the most
formal settings, but not to venture into editorialising and emotion.
In less formal academic settings (including student writing, by and
large) and in some fields like literary studies, its even acceptable to
write with a certain amount of personal reaction and feeling. The
right amount of me-ness in one's writing will vary from field to
field, journal to journal, teacher to teacher: as you gain expertise in
a particular field, you'll learn what the rules are.
You is rather a different kettle of fish. It really doesn't belong in the
most formal academic writing. Directly addressing the reader
changes the dynamic of the essay or paper. In the hard sciences this
would rarely be appropriate, though in the humanities one finds the
second person more often.
Harvey, M. Rhetoric: first and second person, in The nuts and

bolts of college writing, supra at:
http://nutsandbolts.washcoll.edu/rhetoric.html.
Basically, what can be distilled from this advice is that a certain
degree of formality in business and academic writing is appropriate
to give it weight and credibility, but that there is not a hard-andfast rule. You should follow the rules that seem right for your
employer or discipline without getting bogged down for the sake of
the rules alone. View a range of writings in your place of
employment or the journals for your profession to see what works
and is appropriate. You will become more comfortable with
variation as you write more.
One very excellent resource that has guided generations of writers
is the classic Elements of style by William Strunk, Jr. (1918). This
is available online at: http://www.bartleby.com/141/. This tiny
book has rules of grammar and usage as well as composition. Later
editions add a few chapters co-authored by EB White. The full text
of this version is also available online at:
http://orwell.ru/library/others/style/index.htm. It is also available
in print, with the latest edition released in paperback in 2000. It is
likely that you will find this helpful.
You may want to be aware, however, that it is geared to American
English, so spelling could be an issue for some writers. Its grammar
and usage rules are great guidance for all writers. Good grammar is
a core skill for good writing. There are many helpful and easy-to-
86
use online resources on English grammar. You will have seen that
many of the sites referred to in this guide for other matters also
have sections on grammar. Bookmark these as you find them! Some
additional resources are:
The guide to grammar and spelling, CCC Foundation, available
at: http://www.cctc.commnet.edu/grammar/
Grammar and style help, critical writing, University of
Pennsylvannia, available at:
http://www.cctc.commmnet.edu/grammar/(links to other
resource).
6.2.4
Hedging
As discussed earlier, hedges or vague or cautious writing is an
attribute of academic writing. Its relationship to objectivity or
detachment has been noted as has its frequency in academic
writing.
Still another indication of detachment is the use of words which
express the probability of some generic statement being true. We
have found that academic writers are particularly fond of
expressions which indicate that things happen, in general, a certain
proportion of the time, but not necessarily always words like
normally, usually, primarily, principally, and virtually. Such
words are academic hedges, by which the write escapes blame for
instances which fail to correspond to his generalisation. Some
examples are:
Correction is usually thought of as being only a matter of
stopping and saying part of your sentence over differently.
The contour used primarily by white children was a gradually
rising contour.
Chafe W. and J. Danielewicz, Technical report no. 5: Properties of

written and spoken language (The Writing Project Natl. Center for
the Study of Writing, 1987)
Hedging in academic texts should legitimately be used to reflect
unavoidable limitations of scientific or other knowledge and not
merely for politeness, writing convention or face-saving. See Mayer,
P.G. Hedging strategies in academic discourse: strengthening the
argument by weakening the claim (Europa-Universitt Viadrina).
Similar views are expressed by Salager-Meyer F. and C. A study of
hedges in written scientific discourse (US Department of State,
Office of English Language Programs), available at:
http://exchanges.state.gov/education/engteaching/pubs/BR/
functionalsec3_8.htm.
This publication with its explanations of appropriate rationales and
examples of hedges, provides a good tutorial. Also, see Gillett, A.
supra.
Lawyers can be especially good at hedging. If you use words that do
not make it a certainty, you are not responsible for things that
occur in contrast to your statement. However, in business and in
practice, clients hate not knowing with measurable degrees of
certainty or lack thereof. So an opinion or legal memorandum that
hedges on everything is viewed as worthless advice, unless the lack
of support for a position really reflects the state of the law one of
great uncertainty. So use the words carefully. Hedge only where
87
and to the degree that you have to, but absolutely do so where you
must.
6.2.5
Explicitness
As Gillett notes, academic writing is explicit in two essential ways.
It explicitly signals the organisation of the ideas in the text, the
writer being responsible to show the reader how all the parts of
the text are related and often through the use of signalling
words or transitioning sentences (see writing paragraphs
(supra) for a discussion of both).
It explicitly acknowledges, in the text, the sources of ideas and
where they are known.
See Gillet, A. Academic writing: explicitness at
http://www.uefap.co.uk/writing/feature/explicit.htm.
This tutorial offers good examples of how such signalling words can
be used effectively in a variety of contexts in academic writing. For
example:
to show how a line of argument will change
to show how one sentence explains another or gives examples
to illustrate the prior statement.
Attribution of ideas is discussed further in the following chapter in
this part.
6.2.6
Responsibility
In a related attribute, the academic writer is responsible for
demonstrating an understanding of the source texts and must be
able to provide evidence and justification for any claims made. This
is done by paraphrasing and summarising what you read (see
part 1 of this guide) and acknowledging the source of this
information or ideas by a system of citation. Referencing and
citation are addressed further in the following chapter.
88
Chapter 7: Referencing and avoiding

plagiarism
Introduction
At many levels, giving credit in your writings for the use of ideas
and words of others is more than just a nice thing to do. Copying
the words of others can infringe copyright. Using the ideas of
others, even if not the exact words, could still infringe copyright if
the ideas were creative and detailed enough.
In any event, where the idea is not something considered part of
common knowledge, using it without attribution is plagiarism
which is considered unethical and dishonest in academe and
immoral if not illegal. Outside academia, plagiarism is still
cheating, even if not as tainting to the career. However, when your
boss thinks an idea is yours and rewards your innovation, you still
risk being caught and embarrassed.
It is not difficult to plagiarise, given the abundance of information
available at your fingertips from many sources. Plagiarism need not
be intentional. In fact, most would never intentionally think of
doing it. You can plagiarise, however, just by failing to pay
attention to details while you read, take notes, gather sources
online and write and in doing so, omit a proper reference. The
converse consideration is that you need to master referencing,
including legal references.
This chapter looks at both sides of this coin, what comprises
plagiarism and how to avoid it, including by proper reference and
citation.
7.1
What is plagiarism?
There are many definitions and explanations of what comprises
plagiarism. Type the word into Google and you will get nearly 3.5
million results. So this is something that is much considered and
you will find some discussion of it on virtually every high school,
college or university site. Let us work through a number of these
until you get a good sense of what falls within the terms as
considered by most.
(Carroll 2002:9):
Plagiarism is passing off someone elses work, whether intentionally
or unintentionally, as your own for your own benefit.
89
Queen Mary, University of London student guide:

All material submitted for assessment, [] shall be the candidates
own work (except where group work specifically forms part of the
assessment). Brief quotations from published or unpublished work
of other persons may be used, but must always be attributed, both
at the appropriate point in the text, and in the bibliography at the
end of the piece of work. Extensive quotations; close paragraphing;
copying from works of another person (including another student)
without proper acknowledgement constitutes plagiarism, which is
an examination offence.
The concise Oxford dictionary (1976) sixth edition:

Plagiarise take and use another persons (thoughts, writings,
inventions) as ones own.
The Cambridge international dictionary of English (1995):

Plagiarise to use (another person's idea or part of their work) and
pretend that it is your own.
The Oxford advanced learner's dictionary (1995) fifth edition:

Plagiarise to take somebody else's ideas or words, and use them
as if they were ones own.
Collins COBUILD English language dictionary (1987):

If you plagiarise someone else's ideas, or part of a piece of writing
or music by someone else, you use it in your own work and pretend
that you thought of it or created it.
Funk and Wagnalls' new standard dictionary (1921):

Plagiarism is the act of appropriating the ideas, writings, or
inventions of another without due acknowledgement; specifically,
the stealing of passages either for word or in substance, from the
writings of another and publishing them as ones own.
Collin's pocket English dictionary (1987):

Plagiarism is the taking of ideas, writings, etc. from another and
passing them off as ones own.
University College London:

Plagiarism is defined as the presentation of another person's
thoughts or words or artefacts or software as though they were a
student's own. Any quotation from the published or unpublished
works of other persons must, therefore, be clearly identified as such
by being placed inside quotation marks, and students should
identify their sources as accurately and fully as possible. A series of
short quotations from several different sources, if not clearly
identified as such, constitutes plagiarism just as much as does a
single unacknowledged long quotation from a single source.
Equally, if a student summarises another person's ideas,
judgements, figures, software or diagrams, a reference to that
person in the text must be made and the work referred to must be
included in the bibliography.
University of Hertfordshire policies and regulations, 17.7, 5.2.:

Plagiarism is the representation of another person's work as the
student's own, either by extensive unacknowledged quotation,
paraphrasing or direct copying.
90
Chapter 7: Referencing and avoiding plagiarism
MLA handbook for writers of research papers (1995):

To use another person's ideas or expressions in your writing
without acknowledging the source is to plagiarise.
As a student on the University of London LLM course for External

students, you will not have to do any essays other than those short
unseen essays on exams, where plagiarism is unlikely to be a
problem. So, you will not here acquire the balancing skill of using
course materials and other readings, which as Andrew Northedge
points out in The good study guide (1990, p.190) is not easy:
You have to tread quite a fine line between being accused, on the
one hand, of not making enough use of the writers you have
been reading on the course, and, on the other, of having
followed then too slavishly, to the point of plagiarising them.
One of your early tasks as a student is to get a feel for how to strike
the right balance.
Much of what you write in your career will come from the ideas of
other people (from textbooks, law journals, treatises, lectures and
the seminars you attend, and your discussions with others students,
etc.). This is what academic/professional writing is all about.
However, the ideas and people that you refer to need to be explicit
by a system of referencing. How to do that is addressed in 7.2
below. When you must use a referencing system is considered in
the next section.
7.2

The best way to avoid plagiarism is to properly credit any
quotations, even short phrases, by the use of quotation marks1 and
a citation and an idea that is not your own with a citation unless it
is common knowledge.
This is true even where you have not used the language of the
original source but have paraphrased it using entirely your own
words. It may be difficult to decide exactly what common
knowledge within your subject is. Where textbooks or journals do
not acknowledge a source or where the information is easy to find
in multiple sources, you can assume that it is common knowledge
within your subject. For concepts and ideas which are generally
accepted as valid within your specialism, there is no need to
provide a reference. However, no one will fault you if you err on
the side of caution and credit such texts and journals where the line
is not clear.
Quotes may also be referenced using
another stylistic treatment without

quotations such as the Harvard uniform
system of citations treatment of block
quotes over 50 words. These are to be set
off from the rest of the text via a block
indent and single spacing with the source
at the margin after the quote. This uniform
system of citation is used for most legal
writing in the United States.
Exercise 1
Which of these do you consider to be unacceptable?
1
Change some of the words and sentences in a text, but keep the overall
structure of the text and the vocabulary the same as in the original text.
Take some short fixed phrases from several different sources and put them
together with some of your own words.
Copy a paragraph directly from the source with no changes.
91
Copy a paragraph making only small changes. For example, replace some
words with words with similar meanings.
Copy out an article from a journal or textbook and submit it as a piece of

your own coursework.
Cut and paste a paragraph: use the sentences of the original but put one or
two in a different order and leave one or two out.
Paraphrase a paragraph: rewrite the paragraph but change the language,

organisation and detail, and give your own examples.
Quote a paragraph by placing it in quotation marks and acknowledge the

source.
Rewrite a passage from another writer and present it as your own work.
10
Take just one word or phrase from a text because it is very well
expressed.
11
Use another authors organisation and way of arguing.
Answers
Most people would agree that the only really acceptable one is 8,
and, even then, you need a good reason for quoting. None of the
others would be acceptable without acknowledgement. Some may
consider 2, 7 and 10 as acceptable, but good practice is to avoid
even this risk.
Take notes in your own words. A good strategy is: read, put away
your books and think, and then write your notes, summarising what
you have read.
Acknowledge quotations, even in your own notes and even for
short phrases. This will help you avoid accidental plagiarism when
you copy from your own notes, not realising the words were copied
from a textbook. Set these off with quotation marks and note a
page reference.
If you use ideas of other people, be explicit about it. That is to say,
cite the relevant author at the relevant point in your writing.
Many very good tutorials are available online at numerous sites, as
mentioned. You may find that looking at some of these with their
examples helps crystallise the issue for you.
Duke University US, Avoiding plagiarism: practical strategies,
available at:
http://www.lib.duke.edu/libguide/plagiarism2.htm.
Northwestern University, US, How to avoid plagiarism
available at: http://www.northwestern.edu/uacc/plagiar.html.
(Extensive examples.)
7.3
Referencing
If proper referencing is the key to avoiding plagiarism and writing
responsibly, then knowing how to reference properly is a key
writing skill. This is not that easy as there are numerous referencing
systems and style manuals. The method and style used can vary
from institution to institution and from one academic discipline to
another. Various publishers, journals or other organisations such as
companies or law firms can have what is called a house style.
The major styles of reference include the following:
92
Modern Language Association (MLA)

American Psychological Association (APA)(Harvard System
Format)
American Medical Association (AMA)
Turabian
Chicago.
The chart below outlines the disciplines that generally follow
specific styles.
General styles and their disciplines
Style
Usage
APA
Psychology, education and other social

sciences
MLA
Literature, arts, humanities
AMA
Medicine, health and biological

sciences
Turabia
n
Designed for college students to use

with all subjects
Chicago
Used with all subjects in the real

world by books, magazines,
newspapers, and other non-scholarly
publications
Critical writing@The University of Pennsylvania, available at:

http://writing.upenn.edu/critical/help_tips.html#style.
This University of Pennsylvania web site provides links to many
valuable writing and referencing resources, including one that
compares the various forms of citation for key types of works and
university and other sites with detailed summaries of the rules of
the various styles with examples.
A helpful tutorial on the Harvard Format-APA style guidelines is
that of the University of Portsmouth, available at:
http://www.port.ac.uk/departments/studentsupport/library/
supportandadvice/Informationstudyskillssupportmaterial/harvarda
paform
7.3.1
Legal citations
In the US, law has an official form of referencing that is called the
Uniform System of Citation (aka The blue book). All American law
students learn this system that has been compiled by several top
law schools and which is maintained by the Harvard Law Review. It
uses various methods of citation for different legal writings. Thus, a
court brief will vary from an article for a law review, with the
former citing within the text and the latter using footnotes.
This system has the benefit of being a definitive guide with rules
and examples for nearly all types of authorities that could be
referenced, including many citation forms that are used within
specific states. If you have no mandated or suggested preference or
93
you are writing for US-based entities, you might choose this for its
clear guidelines. A basic overview of the system is available at:
http://www.law.cornell.edu/citation/.
Another system of citation for US legal writers adopted by a few
schools and numerous law professors is that by the Association of
Legal Writing Directors (ALWD). This is a simpler system with
consistent citation forms for all legal documents. The manual is
available through Aspen Publishers.
In contrast to the US, the UK has no official citation form, as the
University of Stirling notes. There are, however, some common
forms of legal citation which you might use absent some other
specified method or stylistic convention. These include the
following as noted by the librarians of Stirling University in their
excellent legal reference tutorial, A guide to legal citations, at:
http://www.library.stir.ac.uk/refdesk/lawrefer.html:
UK statutes
Statutes are cited by their short title, year and chapter number. In
the past a comma was used between the year and chapter number
but this is now omitted.
Public general Acts
Citation format: Short title Year c.Number
Example: Hunting Act 2004 c.37
Sections of Acts are referenced by adding s. and the section number
to the citation.
Citation format: Short title Year c.Number s.Number
Example: Children Act 2004 c.31 s.6
For Acts from before 1963 the regnal year is used instead of the
calendar year:
Citation format: Short title Regnal year c.number
Example: British Museum Act 10 & 11 Eliz. 2 c.18
Local Acts
Example: Stirling District Council Order Confirmation Act 1979
c.xvii
(For local Acts, the chapter number is written in lower case roman
numerals.)
Private and personal Acts
Example: George Donald Evans and Deborah Jane Evans (Marriage
Enabling) 1987 c.2
(For private and personal Acts, the chapter number is written in
italicised arabic numbers.)
Acts of the Scottish Parliament
Acts of the Scottish Parliament (i.e. post-devolution Acts passed at
Holyrood) are cited by their short title, year and number.
Citation format: Short title Year asp Number
94
Example: Budget (Scotland) Act 2004 asp 2

Statutory instruments
UK
United Kingdom Statutory Instruments are cited in many different
ways, including citation by short title and year, or by year and
running title.
Citation format: Short title Year
Example: The Scallop Fishing Order 2004
OR
Citation format: S.I. Year no. number
Example: S.I. 2004 No. 12
If a UK Statutory Instrument only applies in Scotland it will be
given an S number in addition to the Statutory Instrument number.
There is no need to include this S number in your citation, as it is
not needed to trace the SI.
Example: The Reporting of Suspicious Marriages (Scotland)
Regulations 2000 No. 3232 (S. 9)
Cite as: The Reporting of Suspicious Marriages (Scotland)
Regulations 2000
or: S.I. 2000 No. 3232.
Scottish Statutory Instruments
Scottish Statutory Instruments from the devolved Scottish
Parliament (SSIs) are given a title and a running number for the
year in which they are published. Use both of these for the citation.
Citation format: Title Year No. Number
Example: The Jam and Similar Products (Scotland) Regulation
2004 No. 133
Bills
UK
At Westminster each bill is given a number. If a minor change is
made to a bill a letter may be added to this number, and the
number is changed if a bill is reprinted. (The bill number is not the
same as the Act number.)
Citation format bill being considered by House of Commons: H.C.
Session of parliament [Number]
Example: H.C. 2004/05 [11]
Citation format - bill being considered by House of Lords: H.L. Session
of parliament Number
Example: H.L. 2004/05 12
Scottish Parliament
Scottish Parliament bills keep the same number throughout,
therefore you need to include the printing in the citation. (The
number will only change if/when the bill becomes an act.)
Citation format: SP Bill Number Title [printing] Session (Year)
95
Example: SP Bill 12 National Parks (Scotland) Bill [as introduced]

Session 1 (2000)
Parliamentary debates
Westminster
The volume number is optional when citing Hansard the House of
Commons Information Service recommends including the volume
number if the debate took place more than a year ago.
Citation format: House Deb, Date, Volume number (if more than a
year old), Column number
Example: HC Deb, 16 December 2004, c1176
Example: HC Deb, 7 November 2002, vol 392, cc417418
Example: HL Deb, 20 December 2004, col1527
(These examples were written in January 2005)
Add W to the column number for Written Answers, WH for
Westminster Hall, or WS for Written Statements.
Example: HC Deb, 7 November 2002, vol 392, c452W
Scottish Parliament
Information about citing the Official Report of the Scottish
Parliament (Scottish Hansard) can be found in our Guide to
recommended citations for Scottish Parliament publications (at
http://www.library.stir.ac.uk/refdesk/spcite.html).
Command papers
It is important to use the correct abbreviation in the citation of a
command paper, as this changes depending on the series.
18361899
abbreviation is C
19001918
abbreviation is Cd
19191956
abbreviation is Cmd
1956Nov
1986
abbreviation is
Cmnd
1987date
abbreviation is Cm
Citation format: Title, Command abbreviation Number (Year)

Example: Identity Cards The Next Steps, Cm 6020 (2003)
Cases
Give the name of the pursuer/claimant first, followed by v. (not vs.)
and then the name of the defender/defendant. Follow this with the
year (if this is necessary to find the case), volume number (if
present), series (in abbreviated form) and the page number where
the case report starts. The names of the parties should be italicised.
Citation format: Pursuer v Defender Year Series Page number
Example: Liffe Administration and Management v Scottish Ministers
2004 S.L.T. 2
96
Use of brackets and years in case citations Scottish

law reports
In citations for Scottish law reports the year is included if it is an
essential part of a case citation citations for most modern Scottish
law reports include years. If the year isn't essential, it is either
enclosed in round brackets, or it is not included at all.
Example year essential: Musaj v Secretary of State for the Home
Department 2004 S.L.T. 623
Example year essential: Allison v Orr 2004 S.C.L.R. 767
Example year not essential: Glenday v. Johnston (1905) 13 S.L.T.
467
Square brackets are never used when citing printed Scottish law
reports, but their use is widespread in citations from other
jurisdictions.
Use of brackets and years in case citations - nonScottish law reports
For non-Scottish law reports the year is enclosed in square brackets
if it is essential for finding the case. If the volume number is
enough to find the case, the year is given in round brackets or
omitted.
Example year essential: Hamilton v. Al Fayed [2000] 2 All ER 224
Example year essential: Cannon v. Cannon [2005] 1 WLR 32
Example year not essential: Pretty v. United Kingdom 66 BMLR 147
Finding abbreviations
To find the correct abbreviation for a law report, use Donald
Raistricks Index to legal citations and abbreviations ( ) or the
Cardiff index to legal abbreviations, available online at:
http://www.legalabbrevs.cardiff.ac.uk/ (Note not in original: this is
also very helpful for finding what abbreviations mean. It can be
used with a variety of search terms, including authors where
applicable.)
A guide to legal citations, Stirling University Library, at:
http://www.library.stir.ac.uk/refdesk/lawrefer.html. (This web site
also has an excellent briefing on citation to European legal
materials; the sources contained in its acknowledgements are
themselves valuable resources for legal referencing.)
Cases Court of the First Instance and Court of Justice
Citation format: Case number Party v Party Year Series Page
Example (case from before 1989): Case 8/74 Procureur du Roi
v.Benoit and Gustave Dassonville [1974] ECR 837
From 1989 onwards, decisions of the Court of First Instance are
prefixed with the letter T (for Tribunal de premire instance) and
decisions of the Court of Justice are prefixed with the C (for Cour de
justice). From 1990 onwards European Court Reports contain two
separate sequences of pagination, with volume I containing cases
before Court of Justice and volume II containing cases before the
Court of First Instance.
97
Example (post-1990, Court of Justice): Case C-379/00 Overland

Footwear Ltd v Commissioners of Customs & Excise [2002] ECR I11133
Example (post-1990, Court of the First Instance): Case T-21/98
Carlos Alberto Leite Mateus v Commission of the European
Communities [1999] ECR IA-25; II-107
European Court of Human Rights
Judgements of the European Court of Human Rights used to be
given a series number, but this practice has been abandoned. If
there is a series number this should be used in the citation,
otherwise give the application number after the names of the
parties.
Citation format (with a series number): Party v. Party, Judgement of
date, Series no., (Year) Volume Series Page
Example: Allan Jacobsson v. Sweden, Judgement of 25 October
1989, Series A no. 163, (1987) 9 EHRR 1
Citation format (without a series number): Party v. Party, (App
number), Judgment of date, (Year) Volume Series Page
Example: Musial v Poland, (App 24557/94), Judgement of 25
March 1999, (2001) 31 EHRR 29
Another helpful source of legal citation and footnoting form for the
UK, among other things, can be found in R.C. A. White Writing
guide 2: writing a research paper, pp.24-41 (University of
Leicester, Dept. of Law, 2003) fifth edition available at:
http://www.le.ac.uk/law/info/research/writing-guide2003pg.pdf
7.3.2
Some basic considerations for legal sources

Keep the following basic points in mind when undertaking any
piece of legal writing:
1. References: become familiar with the various authoritative
references in the particular area of law that you are studying. The
major semi-official series of reports used by the legal profession in
England and Wales are the Law Reports. They started in 1865.
There are now four series:
Appeal Cases (cited as AC), has the reports of the House of
Lords and Judicial Committee of the Privy Council.
Chancery (cited as Ch.) contains reports of cases on all matters
heard in the Chancery Division and in the Court of Appeal
therefrom.
Queens Bench (formally Kings) (cited as QB or KB) contains
reports of all cases in that division including ordinary
commercial, maritime, appellate and in the Court of Appeal
(Civil Division).
Family (cited as Fam.) contains reports of the Family Division
in its ordinary and appellate jurisdiction. (Until 1971 this
Division was called Probate, Divorce and Admiralty division).
2. There are other series of reports that you should know including
the All England Law Reports (cited as All ER) and the weekly Law
Reports (cited as WLR).
98
3. You should also become familiar with Halsburys Laws of England

and Halsburys Statutes. The former is the pre-eminent legal
encyclopaedia in the UK.
4. You must check that the statute you are referring to is in force.
Statutes are often amended and sometimes repealed. You must
ensure that the version of the statute you are relying upon is the
most up to date. If you are relying on a particular section of a
recently passed Statute you must make sure that section is in force.
Statutes often provide for different sections to come into force at
different times.
5. If you have problems understanding a particular word then refer
to a legal dictionary. There are numerous available which will
provide various interpretations supported by authority. For
instance, there is Strouds Judicial Dictionary.
6. Many statutes provide interpretation sections and some of the
longer statutes will have several interpretation sections which apply
to particular parts of the statute. You must take great care to ensure
that the interpretation that you are relying on is the correct one.
7. When stating a proposition in a piece of legal work, you must
provide the authority that you are relying upon to support your
proposition. Statutes, a statutory provision, a statutory instrument
(secondary legislation) or the decision of a court of law, called
primary sources, are preferred authorities. Experts commentary or
other secondary authorities can still be relied on but preferably to
supplement the primary sources, unless necessary. With regard to
these, you must make sure that the source of law is still controlling
and supports that proposition. For cases, this means that you must
make sure that it says what you cite it for and that at least this
aspect of the decision has not been overruled. When referring to
cases make sure that you cite them correctly giving the full names
and the correct citation. For instance, Reeves v Butcher [1891] 2 QB
509. Case names are underlined or italicised in the text and in
footnotes or parentheses where these are used. They are not so
formatted in listings of sources.
99
Notes
100
Part 3: Examination
skills
101
102
Contents: part 3
Chapter 1
105
Chapter 2
Revision and exam preparation
107
Revision process
108
Writing an examination paper
113
3.1
Exam realities
113
3.2
114
3.3
Readability
115
3.4
Relevance
115
3.5
117
3.6
Use clear, objective arguments/support your arguments
2.1
Chapter 3
with specific sources
117
3.7
Use examples and illustrations from deep specific levels
118
3.8
119
3.9
In the exam
119
Managing examination stress
123
4.1
What is stress?
123
4.2
Assessing whether your stress levels are a problem
124
4.3
124
Chapter 4
103
Notes
104
Chapter 1: Introduction
It may have been a while since you did your last law school exam
and your exam-taking skills are no longer sharp. In contrast, it may
have been just a year or two ago, but you do not think that you did
as well as you think you are capable of. In either case, you need to
enhance your exam preparation and exam-taking skills. It has been
suggested that doing well in law exams means:
thinking like a lawyer
sounding like a lawyer
writing like a lawyer.
However, this is not the whole story. Doing well in law
examinations means thinking, sounding and writing like a lawyer
who has in-depth mastery of a subject area, having carefully
studied, revised and anticipated likely exam questions and
practised writing for them and controlled his revision and exam
experience as much as possible, or you may have never taken
written law school exams.
Part 1 of this guide dealt with how to study carefully and well. We
will now address the rest of the equation.
Chapter 2: Revision and exam preparation explores how to plan for
and revise in an organised and effective manner. It explores such
topics as setting a timetable for your revision, developing revision
outlines, analysing your materials for likely questions and writing
practice exams.
Chapter 3: Writing an examination paper addresses how to write an
examination paper. It discusses eight key criteria for any successful
legal exam, including organised presentation with suggested
methods, readability, relevance, use of effective legal reasoning and
supporting your arguments. It points to some helpful resources and
provides some additional guidance for the exam itself.
Structuring a good answer and effective legal reasoning are skills
that are improved on over time and might therefore be considered
revision skills as well. However, as they are the hallmarks of what
you must deliver in the exam itself, they are included here.
Chapter 4: Managing examination stress looks at ways to control
the stress which can serve to undermine exam performance. It
provides guidance here for the revision and exam processes.
Exam writing is legal writing which should be just good. You may
wish to review that section before you revise.
105
Notes
106
Chapter 2: Revision and exam preparation
Introduction
After completing the sections of the course you are studying, you
will be examined. You will then be required to answer one question
which may include multiple parts, depending on the subject, within
45 minutes.
In many ways this is quite an advantage over the other LLM
students who are usually assessed during a single three-hour
written examination only once at the end of the year for the entire
course. This examination is likely to encompass all topics. You, on
the other hand, need only revise one section at a time and,
practically speaking, writing for 45 minutes is much less exhausting
physically and mentally than having to write continuously for three
hours.
Not only that, but you do not have to worry about balancing the
time of three hours among your answers; you just get your reading
time and 45 minutes.
While it might not sound like it at first, the fact that you will have
separate examinations for a course is in itself a benefit:
you will get the chance to improve your performance
a single bad day will not doom your result
you will, in reality, get better at taking exams and getting ready
for them, as you will get more practice and more time to
practice.
Be that as it may, you still will need a systematic approach to
revision in order to ensure optimal testing performance. As with
any other skill, exam-taking skills are developed via a methodical
analysis, practice and planning of your revision.
Whereas your course is designed to develop your ideas in specific
ways, an exam is to test how well you have understood and can
apply them. You should be able to use the topics covered in your
course to argue a case. Your revision should therefore provide a
systematic overview of the course covered and result in an
organised, holistic understanding of the course material.
The revision period, starting at least a month before the exams, is
the time for your major thinking and planning on how to approach
a question not the exam room (except in a dire emergency). The
following suggests some steps for you to follow in ordering your
revision period.
107
2.1
Revision process
The very first step before you revise your course is to familiarise
yourself fully with the layout of the paper, including:
the number of sections and questions from which to select the
question to be answered
their customary format.
Having done that, the first step in your revision is as follows.
Step 1: analyse and compare:
the section guide and each chapters learning
objective/outcomes
your course notes
the content of past exam papers, where available.
You are looking to identify the relationship between the sections
structure and the exam. Are both divided into sub-sections, with
discrete questions on each, or are the questions more generally set
across chapters?
If you can see the links between the exam questions and the course
materials then you have the core of your answers. Northedge, A., et
al. The Sciences Good Study Guide, (Open University International
1997).
Therefore, you should identify major topics, recurring themes, new
important developments and areas of controversy, discussion or
dissent.
Step 2: organise your revision topics and notes
Once you have identified the key questions at the centre of each
chapter of the section, select which topic areas to revise in depth,
plus two extra to be used in an emergency. Your main revision
work is therefore:
organising, reorganising and summarising your notes under the
headings of these major topics and themes
practice in reorganising, inverting, or adapting the details to
match the requirements of different questions which could be
asked under each topic heading.
To do this, you should gather together all the information from
your various sources which should by now have largely been
distilled into clear concise summaries and notes.
You should then reduce (or boil down) your notes on each topic to
produce a highly condensed version which consists of headings,
main points, key case names, statute sections and dates etc. (23
pages per topic).
Reduce these again to a single page summary of each topic.
Finally, reduce all your topic summary pages to one single-page
which summarises all the topics in that section of the course.
Step 3: practice exam taking
You now need to apply all of this information and develop analytic
approaches to organising your answer. To do this, the following
may prove valuable:
108
A crucial feature of exam revision is to practice answering past

or sample exam questions from memory, using the material
from your summary pages. At first, do not time yourself, but
rather focus on the development of answers.
After you have answered a question from memory, check back
each time to see what you forgot. Make sure to incorporate this
information the next time that you try the question again.
Once mastered, practice again in a few days to ensure retention
and overlearning of the material. Overlearning is an
educational theory based on research which suggests that
practice of information beyond mastery leads to automaticity or
integration of the data into long-term memory and that permits
working memory to be devoted to higher processing of
information. In other words, your brain will not need to work
at remembering during the exam, it can be devoted to the more
complex analytic tasks.
Rehearse those first vital 5-7 exam minutes of analysing a new

question (instruction; topic; focus) and sketching an outline
plan. You should identify:
which part of the section and which topics within that it

refers to
which ideas, examples, sources and evidence to cite and

use
in what order to address the points
the content of a very brief introduction and conclusion.
Practice adding a few rough notes about how you would

answer and then check them against your summary material.
At first sight, some exam questions appear intimidating,
formidable, and difficult to link to your course.
However, they must relate to some part of that section on
which you are being examined and point at a specific topic the
examiners want you to address. This can be found by both
question analysis and careful matching of your course
components, including the learning outcomes, to the set of
questions.
3
When the main summarising work is complete, start writing

individual answers against the clock. This will help you not
only to continue to develop that mental agility, but also speed
and physical strength.
People rarely sit and write for 45 minutes these days. Rather,
we type. These are different muscles. Use this practice time as
well to test out pens to find the kind that work best for you. Do
not assume the one that you use to sign credit card statements
will be up to the job of comfortably writing for 45 minutes
neatly and legibly. How many words or A4 sides can you write
in 3540 minutes? Perhaps, somewhere between 500700
words? The more you have practiced timed writing, the greater
that number can be, although not necessarily should be, as will
be discussed in the next chapter.
The more you do the above activities, the easier and more
automatic it will become, so that it is a skilled routine on exam day.
This provides practice in thinking on your feet, so to speak, and
fixing quickly on an approach to take.
109
The learning theory underlying this approach (i.e. repetition to

produce automacity) is used to develop world-class athletes as well.
So think of this as developing in you a nimble fighting style which
gets you in mental trim for the exam and provides the intellectual
agility to do what the examiners want you to do: answer questions
precisely and draw on relevant parts of the course in doing so.
In answering every question, you are asked to:
sift course material
select items for relevance
arrange them in a suitable order for a coherent answer.
2.1.1
Some other revision tips

It is extremely helpful to work co-operatively with other
students when revising. You can compare the contents of
outline answers, and devise/exchange questions to work on.
If tutorials are available, make sure to go. These can help dispel
misperceptions, provide insights into how topics are related, as
well as give you valuable clues for what might be tested and
tips how the examiner would like you to approach a topic.
Exam answers do not look like essays. Northedge, et. Al. op cit,
sees them as shorter, more fragmented and less polished.
However, they can contain a considerable amount of
information if you have practiced writing answers to time,
based on your summaries. Your goal is to produce concise
quality answers.
Answers should look organised and have brief, clear
introductions, conclusions and paragraphs. They should flow
coherently and logically from point to point. This is what
examiners want to see. Exam-writing skills and methods for
approaching exam questions are addressed further in the next
chapter.
You need a revision timetable which is practical and realistic,
with in-built leisure time. Calculate the hours available for
revision. Take out some time for practice-writing exam
questions. Divide the remainder of the time between the areas
you plan to revise in depth, including your spares. Start on the
first of your summaries.
Apply your other time-management and study skills addressed
in part 1 to your revision. Revise in a quiet, well-lit place.
Identify manageable blocks of material to revise at one time.
Your brain needs to rest. Make sure that you build in adequate
numbers of breaks where you do not think about the exam; do
some other things beside study.
Your body needs to rest. Make sure that you get adequate sleep
during your revision period.
Develop a sleep/leisure routine that helps you to turn off the
student switch. Read something fun. Go get some exercise
(although not just before bed as that will energise you when
you want to still yourself). Take a soak. Go for a walk with
someone you love before you get ready to retire. Again, make it
a habit that conditions the brain to respond the way you want
it to.
110
You need to build towards a peak of efficiency at the right time.

The two days immediately before the exam are not the time for
deep analysis of the issue. (Northedge, op. cit.)
Despite your best efforts, you still may be unable to sleep the
night before the exam. If you have slept regularly during the
revision and sleep well two days before the exam, you should
be fine. But, do not revise now if you can avoid it at all.
Just relax as best you can. If you must stay up and revise, make
sure to take frequent breaks and adequate nourishment that
does not include caffeine. If you are too wired on the day of the
exam, you will not perform well.
Do not look at your notes on the day of the exam. Attempting
to revise now will only make you anxious. It is in there already!
111
Notes
112
Chapter 3: Writing an examination paper
Introduction
As the bus approached the Montgomery bus depot without the
motorcycle policeman who had left, men waited with stones, sticks,
bats, and chains. Rev. Coffin looked at George who sat by him and
was amazed to see his nose still in [a law book on] Future Interests.
Arent you nervous, dope? Rev. Coffin asked affectionately.
[George] glanced out of the window then at [Rev. Coffin]. He
grinned. Sticks and stones can break my bones, he said, but law
exams can kill me.
Smith Reid, I. From birth to the bench: a quiet but persuasive

leader, 68 Albany L. Rev. 216 (2005). (On her brother Judge
George Bundy Smiths freedom rider experience in the segregated
US South in the 1950s.)
As the quote shows, law school exams can strike relative fear into
the heart of all law students, both undergraduate and postgraduate.
So, you are in very good company (going back hundreds of years) if
you have anxiety about writing your law exams. However, if you
have studied and revised well, you are likely to be in a very good
position to write an excellent paper.
Yet, as with study and revision, this is not something that you will
wish to leave merely to chance. Here as well, you will likely benefit
from some analysis of exam-taking skills and practice of such skills.
This chapter does that. While not all examiners will assess in the
same way, this chapter considers some characteristics that should
exist in all well-written papers.
3.1
Exam realities
Although you will have spent 45 minutes writing your answer,
examiners are very unlikely to spend that long reading the answer.
Nor do they have any idea whose script they are marking. They can
only rely on what is there, on the page. They cannot speculate
about your intent or what you mean to say. They will do their best
to read and understand your writing. The examinations will be read
by two people. Usually, for consistency, they use a marking
schedule that identifies relevant points to be addressed in a
successful paper, including points for merit and distinction,
although it is understood that these are merely guidelines. You may
note something that is worthy of such credit that may not have
been considered. Given these time and other constraints for exams,
you might say that examiners are interested in papers that meet
eight key criteria. They should:
113
have an organised presentation

read well
relevantly address the question set, throughout
apply the course ideas and issues raised
offer clear lines of objective argument
support arguments made: evidence and source back-up
including key primary sources of law such as: cases, statutes
show subject knowledge, with examples and illustrations from
deep specific levels
not only be descriptive (i.e. the law says this or that) but
also provide analysis and evaluation.
3.2
Having an organised presentation does not mean that you answer
your question like everyone else or that you use the same format
for different types of questions. What it does mean is that there
must be an ordered and perceptibly logical progression to your
answer. For example, you might have a brief introduction, issue
analysis, issue conclusion (for as many key issues as are raised) and
overall conclusion.
This approach might work well with an essay-type question such as:
The law of tort provides sufficient remedies for injured parties.
Discuss.
Or you might consider an approach here that posits the conclusion
first and then proceeds with issue analysis. For example, you might
conclude While the law of tort does provide remedies for many
injuries, these are not always sufficient; equitable remedies are
sometimes necessary.
There are suggested formats for legal problem-type questions that
ask you to supply an answer to a set of facts. One of these is called
IRAC. This stands for:
issue
rules
analysis
conclusion.
A very fine tutorial, with example analysis on how this method is
applied is by Grant, B. Legal problem solving (Newcastle Law
School December 2004). It is available at:
http://www.ncl.ac.uk/nuls/lectures/legprob/legprob.pdf
You should spend some time practicing this legal-writing method.
Another legal-writing teacher, however, reasonably suggests that
IRAC is a good starting tool, but that you should move on once you
have mastered that and be able to use other approaches as
appropriate to the question and the course:
Part of my goal when teaching exam writing is getting students to
break out of the IRAC formula once they have mastered it. I believe
that full IRACs on each issue raised in an exam question is often
very difficult and that they need to think of IRAC as a rough guide.
If they are to use a formula, I recommend that they skip the I
(Issue) and begin with a C (Conclusion) and then give the R
114
(Rule) and A (Analysis). Additionally, I state that they may want

to include policy (P) briefly at the end of their analysis,
particularly if the professor was apt to raise such issues during the
semester. Thus I-R-A-C would be replaced with a C-R-A and P or
CRAP. The acronym CRAP is in ways appropriate because it can
remind students that being wedded to IRAC or any formula can be
crap or not a good thing, because it is too constraining and
reductive. Exam writing, like legal writing, requires recognition of
many factors such as audience, time and space constraints, subject
matter, etc. When students learn this lesson, when they can break
out of the rigid constraints of IRAC, they have then truly learned to
be good legal writers.
Todd, A.G. Exam writing as legal writing: teaching and critiquing

law school examination discourse, 76 Temple L. Rev. 69, 87 at
n.104 (2003).
3.3
Readability
As one commentary has noted:
A grader is not likely to be impressed by the logic of an answer that
cannot be read or is difficult to decipher[K]eep your
sentences short and paragraph frequently. It is also a good
idea to leave an extra line between paragraphs; it enhances
readability and provides room for insertion of thoughts that occur to
you later. A judicious use of underlining, for emphasis is generally
encouraged.
Writing law exams Gilbert law summaries (2002 BAR/BRI),

available at:
http://www.gilbertlaw.com/student/survival_writing.asp
You have only to write for 45 minutes and will not suffer from
illegibility that comes from the physical exhaustion of having to
write for three hours. So, you have no excuse. In your revision, you
will have written several timed practice exams. Ask a few others to
review them for legibility. If most can read them easily, your
handwriting is not likely a problem. If not, you should practice a
clearer style. Even if it is slower at first, with practice, you will
improve.
3.4
Relevance
Staying relevant is crucial to success! As has been noted by one
educator:
It irritates exam markers, who are searching for points which relate
directly to the question, to have to wade through paragraphs of
unsorted and uncensored material. You begin to lose marks rather
than gain them if you give the impression that you are uncritically
throwing course materials before the examiners eye in the hope
that you will fool them into thinking you know what you are talking
about.
Northedge, 1997 p.234

To avoid this, you might consider the approach recommended in
Gilbert law summaries, Survival manual, legal writing of question
115
analysis and issue spotting followed by organisation of how you

will answer the questions (perhaps using some of your outlining or
concept mapping techniques learned in Part 1?).
Clearly this is something that you cannot do for the first time on
exam day and must be considered. It could also be a possible
revision technique for practice exams. Although it speaks in terms
of problem-type questions, its guidance, as follows, is generally
relevant for other types:
(1)
Analyse the problem carefully: Read the problem
through once quickly and determine its general nature. Focus on the
question asked at the end of the problem (e.g. What are the rights
and liabilities of the parties? or What advice would you give P, and
why?). Keeping in mind the question asked, read the problem
through again, slowly and carefully. Squeeze every word and
phrase to raise all potential issues; you will later eliminate those
that are not logically relevant. Ordinarily, it should not be necessary
to read in or stretch the facts to reach the issues. Instead, confine
yourself to the facts given and the logical inferences that can be
drawn therefrom.
(2)
Organise your thoughts: After you have completed
your analysis, chart the issues and the manner in which you will
resolve them before you start writing. Arrange the issues in the
sequence in which you would expect a court to deal with them (i.e.
normally, jurisdictional issues first, then liability, then remedies).
Jot down the points you will discuss in sufficient detail to force you
to think the problem through to its conclusion. Make sure that your
analysis is leading to a fair and practical solution; if not, recheck
your analysis.
(3)
Do not start writing until your analysis and
organisation is complete: You will usually find it necessary to
spend at least one-quarter of the time allocated for the question
in analysing the problem and organising your answer. Do not be
concerned that others begin writing before you do; law instructors
are usually more concerned in the quality than the quantity of your
answer.
Also, a logical organisation and clear expression of ideas can do
wonders for a solid substantive answer and can even bolster a weak
answer. Finally, you will find you can write faster than you would
suppose.
Writing law exams Gilbert law summaries (2002 BAR/BRI), supra.

To ensure that you stay on point while you write your answer,
check back with your outline/organisational chart for every issue.
Cross off each relevant issue when you finish it, if it helps and does
not distract you. Do not waste time providing broad overviews of
the law. Just address the specific issues raised by the question. If
you can do those well, it will be assumed that you know the rest.
116
3.5

In your revision, you will have identified the key issues and
relationships between issues that were emphasised in your course
materials. You will have trained yourself to look for the relationship
between the question and these issues. This is what you are now
being asked to do in the exam. Focus on the most important of
these. While you can treat minor issues or outdated authority, do it
glancingly. That is of course unless this is what the answer calls for,
such as a question that asks you to compare/contrast a current
legal regime with the former.
These key issues are likely those to be found on the guidance
marking schedule where they are likely accorded greater weight
than the others for grading. So, you should budget your time
accordingly (again a revision skill in application!).
3.6
Use clear, objective arguments/support your

arguments with specific sources
Do you remember that in chapter 1, we said the key to success on
legal exams is thinking like a lawyer; sounding like a lawyer;
writing like a lawyer? Well, these two examination goals require all
three.
You know that lawyers use an analysis or reasoning process, called
legal reasoning. This requires the lawyer to determine the
applicability of law to the question at hand by means of various
tests that might all need to be considered sequentially, if any or all
the others have not been dispositive. These tests, some of which
may be uniquely suited to common law jurisdictions with case-law
precedent,1 are:
These tests (e.g. analogy and judicial
reasoning by analogy
tests) may as well have application in civil
balancing of factors
law jurisdictions where it must be noted
judicial tests
that important cases by important courts
public policy argument.
have a persuasive authority in practice.
They are described in a good tutorial, cited below.

As you will note, each of these tests requires the lawyer to make
reference to specific sources. These include:
cases with which to analogise the current facts
parts of statues which must be balances
tests developed by the courts over time as stated in cases
sources which evidence the public policy behind a given
approach to the law, such as:
recitals to statutes
white papers or other legislative history
cases, important commentators or authorities on a specific

topic.
Legal reasoning might generally be described as a logical, deductive

process, although if you are arguing public policy, it may be for the
very reason that a strict logical application of the other tests
117
produces an absurd or unjust result. So, while it is a unique

discipline, we might not call it an exact science. Take the time to
work your way through this tutorial that has some very good
exercises which may serve as a brush up on your skills or a primer
in those areas with greater relevance for common law:
Learn the secrets to legal reasoning: analysis, LawNerds.com,
available at:
http://www.lawnerds.com/guide/analysis.html#Analysis
3.6.1
Determining the rule/briefing a case

For those of you from civil law countries, it may be helpful to
consider some issues surrounding the role of precedent in common
law countries. You may find it helpful to review how to brief a case
to determine the rule of law that the case applies and the facts to
which it applies it in order to be able to analogise to it.
Briefing a case is merely a case summarisation technique that
should serve as well for effective note taking for cases. The
following tutorial explores how and why to brief a case. Although
targeted at fist-year US law students, it has some very helpful
analysis. One very helpful discussion is how to relate the briefing of
a case to IRAC which will clearly help your examination skills.
Blatt, D. How to brief a case (Or why didnt I choose to go to
medical school?) (2000), is available at:
http://lawschool.westlaw.com/highcourt/HowToBrief.doc.
A more concise tutorial on briefing a case is available at:
http://www.psci.unt.edu/King/howtobrief.html.
A very good discussion of the role of precedent in case-law, or stare
decisis, as then applied in the context of legal reasoning can be
found in the following article. It examines this common law
concept in the context of Canadian courts. While you need not
regard the relative importance of Canadian courts unless it is of
interest to you, however, the rest of the discussion can be
considered to apply more generally.
Perell, P. Stare decisis and techniques of legal reasoning and legal
argument (1987) available at:
http://legalresearch.org/docs/perell.html
3.7
Use examples and illustrations from deep

specific levels
You are a Master of Laws student. As the title suggests, you are
expected to have an in-depth proficiency in the areas of law that
you are studying. This in-depth mastery will be shown by evidence
in your paper of whether and how well you have layered the
learning and integrated a range of sources. Thus, for example, you
should be able to cite to works that you have read by other experts
to support an argument that you make in your paper or be able to
use the recitals of an EU Directive to offer possible guidance for
interpretation in the absence of national cases. This is in addition to
being able to cite to the controlling case or statute.
118
3.8

As a Master of Laws you are expected not only to be able to say
what the law is, but to evaluate it and critically analyse the
evaluation of others. Your examination paper should provide
evidence of this level of skill. This should not be hard as you will
have spent months reading critically using the skills that you
developed in part 1. You are merely being asked here to show the
results.
In a problem-type question, this skill might take the form of a
question for which there really is no correct answer. You will need
to evaluate the possibilities and venture an opinion, based on some
criteria (e.g. better meets the public policy, more analogous to this
case than that, the balance of the equities falls here rather than
there, etc.).
In an essay-type question, you are asked to evaluate a certain
proposition, such as whether the limitations of a certain law render
it ineffective. You must take a position and support it with not only
your description of what the law does but your evaluation of why
that is or is not likely to be adequate. If you fail to do this, you will
not really have answered the question.
3.9
In the exam
In this section we will address the topic of managing stress during
the exam-revision period and on examination day. That should help
you to stay calm and be able to think clearly and pay attention to
the details that may make all the difference. Silly things fail
many candidates - or lose them marks (or goodwill) such as:
not writing their name (or exam number) on their answers or
on every extra sheet of paper
answering the wrong number of questions
misreading the questions
turning up at the wrong exam centre
not reading the back side of the pages in the exam paper
not answering all parts of a question.
3.9.1
Suggestions for reading through the exam paper

Read the entire exam through at least twice. You are given
reading time for this. The first time, read it carefully, working
out, in general terms, what is expected for each question. Fold
the bottom corner of each page as you turn it over to read the
back side.
Determine the questions for which you can write the best
answers, assuming that there is more than one. You could put a
cross by those you feel you could answer best.
In these questions, underline or highlight key process words
(e.g. discuss, describe, decide, analyse, compare, and contrast).
These will be elaborated on in part 3.
Indicate key content words (that is, which topics or issues you
are expected to include).
Read the questions through again very slowly to make sure you
have not eliminated any questions you could do better on than
119
you originally thought. Check you can really answer those that
you have ticked.
Jot down ideas you have about any of the questions (wherever
you are instructed to make such notes, noting the question
number beside your idea).
Narrow your choice (assuming you have one) to the question
you can best answer.
Begin your answer plan. Do not write until you have finished
planning, even if you are told that you can begin writing.
3.9.2
Timing your answer

Make sure that you bring a timepiece to the examination room that
does not make a noise and which you can clearly see without
having to stop what you are doing. This will enable you to budget
your time. You are likely in the LLM programme for External
students to only have to answer one question during a 45-minute
period. That question may have multiple parts some of which may
have greater value indicated than others. Therefore, some of the
following suggestions still may apply although more applicable to
those sitting an exam with multiple questions:
Give more time to questions or parts of questions that carry
more marks.
If your question is not in multiple parts, but you have identified
that it has four key issues, then budget your time accordingly,
with eight minutes spent on organisation and eight on each
issue, leaving five minutes to read and adjust your answer.
There is a law of diminishing returns on the amount of time
spent on any one question or part of a question; you are very
unlikely to get twice as many marks.
You are more likely to do better if you write average/good
answers for each of the four issues than of you spend all your
time writing outstanding analyses on two issues but really do
not address the rest.
You should read your paper through carefully for sense. You
may have omitted a not or other important word that you
thought in haste you had said.
If you have run out of the time you have allocated to one issue,
leave it and transition to the next. Leave a space. Your
other issues may take less time than you thought, and you may
be able to come back to it at the end.
3.9.3
Answer the question exactly and only the question set

Numerous failures are caused each year by students failing to
follow the instructions of the question or to answer all the parts of
it. This is unnecessary and should be avoided by effective reading of
the question and organisation and planning of your answer.
If the question says compare and contrast, make sure that you
do both for those things it identifies.
If it asks you to discuss a laws approach to three things, make
sure you analyse all three things.
If you have identified the key issues presented by the question,
make sure the structure of your answer accommodates each of
these issues.
If it asks for an opinion, give an opinion.
120
If it tells you to advise a client as to his rights and liabilities,

make sure it sounds like advice and addresses both rights and
liabilities.
If it say analyse the rights and liabilities of certain parties,
make sure you do both topics for each person.
While you may have tried to anticipate what questions might be
asked and are prepare to answer those, do not stick to those
prepared answer if you see that they cannot be adapted to the
questions asked. You know enough to think on your feet and
prepare a new answer if you have to. Again, take time with your
analysis and organisation. You can write more in 45 minutes than
you probably think you can, especially if you have practiced.
121
Notes
122
Chapter 4: Managing examination stress
Introduction
It is well recognised that taking an exam can produce anxiety or
stress. If this anxiety/stress is too great, it can be very debilitating,
both physically and mentally and inhibit test performance. It is
therefore a good idea to know what it is and acknowledge that it
can be a problem for some people. If it is a problem for you, take
steps to minimise it. Let us consider first the cause and nature of
stress.
4.1
What is stress?
The following explanation from the University of Adelaide
Counselling Centre in Australia provides a simple clear answer to
this question:
Stress is neither negative nor positive. It is our bodys normal
response to challenge, threat or excitement. The stress response is
only a problem if it occurs too often, exists for too long a time
before dissipating, or occurs with a force that is too strong.
The consequences of stress depend on your interpretation of the
physical symptoms. Whether you experience these feelings as a help
or a barrier determines whether you label your stress as positive or
negative, motivating or paralysing. Consider how differently these
two people label their feelings: One is a student just prior to a major
exam, the other is a sportsperson before a critical event. Both are
aware that the palms of their hands are sweating, they can feel their
hearts racing and have strange feelings in the pit of their stomachs.
The student might typically feel distressed about his aroused state
and view his feelings negatively as almost a sign of impending doom
and failure. He may lie awake worrying about his physical condition
as well as about the exam. The sportsman on the other hand takes
exactly the same bodily sensations and interprets them positively as
signs of being able to motivate himself to run faster, jump higher,
throw better. He may be glad of the extra wakeful time to think and
plan. We often hear of athletes psyching themselves up or getting
their adrenalins flowing before an important event in order to
improve their performance. These situations tell us something
important about stress: It can either be a barrier or an aid to success
depending on how you interpret, label and control it.
It would be a mistake to get rid of all stress during exam time,
because it is useful and necessary for you to perform at your
optimum level.
Effortless exams, University of Adelaide, available at:

http://www.adelaide.edu.au/counselling_centre/brochures/exams.
html
123
As this guidance notes, you can use stress to optimise performance

but to do that you must first:
learn to accept the physical sensations of stress and label them
positively
know at what level you are motivated or paralysed by your
stress
bring your stress down to manageable levels.
4.2
Assessing whether your stress levels might be

a problem
You might already have an idea whether your test-taking anxiety
levels cause you concern. Not only have you done some preliminary
assessment in the introduction to this guide, but you have also
taken plenty of examinations in your life.
However, it may still be worthwhile to use the following selfassessment tool, also available on the University of Adelaide web
site, which provides an exam-specific measure of how stress affects
you.
The Albert and Habers achievement anxiety test, available at:
http://www.adelaide.edu.au/counselling_centre/Test.html
If you have identified that your stress levels are paralysing, you
may decide that you need to do something about this. Even if you
have never had a problem with test-taking anxiety, you might find
the following stress control suggestions can aid ultimate
performance or they could prevent any problems that could arise.
For example, where the LLM programme for External students
presents a new challenge such as written exams or exams in
English.
4.3

Stress has both a physical and mental component. It also can be
seen as a cycle of a stimulus followed by a response. As you may
know from behavioural psychology, by changing the response we
can often break the usual cycle, as this in turn can change the
stimulus.
So, if you analyse the techniques below further, you will see that
they are to develop new learned responses to identified stimuli of
stress such as:
negative thoughts
shallow breathing that anxiety can produce (resulting in less
available oxygen)
tense muscles (resulting in shallower breathing and therefore
less oxygen) etc.
We condition ourselves to provide new responses. Conditioning of
muscles and of mind for any endeavour means control and practice.
If you are in condition it is more likely than not that you will
respond in the new way, rather than the old. So, you must work at
them consciously at first, until they become the conditioned
response.
124
4.3.1
Setting realistic expectations

The University of Adelaide Counselling web site provides many
excellent suggestions that we will consider here and supplement as
needed. The first of these addresses the setting of realistic
performance expectations, the first step to managing the mental
component of stress. It notes:
Research shows that many students demand too much from
themselves in exam situations. For example, a student who usually
gets about 60% for maths suddenly demands 75% of himself. There
is nothing wrong with wanting to improve marks, but we believe
that to expect a jump of this magnitude is unrealistic.
The way to go about achieving this goal would be in a term-by-term
plan. First make sure of scoring 65% consistently, than work
towards 70%. Finally over a number of tests/assignments aim for
75%. If we set realistic standards of performance for ourselves, we
will become accustomed to success rather than failure. And nothing
motivates like success. Try and identify unrealistic expectations you
might have, especially in the subjects you find most stressful. Then
draw up a plan of action setting goals in a step-by-step way so that
your achievements reflect these goals.
This concept of planning for manageable goals ties in with what

you may have learned in part 1 regarding time management. You
can set yourself up for failure by not having realistic expectations as
to what you can accomplish in a given time. Your course
examination structure on the University of London LLM for
External students is optimal for this approach to progressive
performance improvement. You can target and plan for each of the
four assessments you will have during the course.
4.3.2
Learning some relaxation techniques

The following are some specific tools to promote relaxation in the
face of stress so that it does not become paralysing.
Conscious breathing and muscle relaxation

We have probably all seen movies where conscious breathing was
used in childbirth as a technique to control pain. Well, deep
conscious breathing can also be used as a tool to control stress by
promoting a general sensation of calm and by helping to relax
tensed muscles. A simple step-by-step guide for deep breathing to
relax and complete natural breathing to avoid the shallow
breathing that can exacerbate an anxiety reactive is: Deep
breathing exercises , available at:
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~acskills/docs/deep_breathing.doc
You can also practice an exercise to achieve muscle relaxation,
which is very helpful since as the Adelaide Counselling Centre
notes:
Much of the discomfort you feel during a panic attack is due to
your voluntary muscles tensing. Progressive muscle relaxation trains
you to be able to relax your muscles and hence decrease the
unpleasant physical sensations at will.
They suggest the following regime which appears very helpful to

relaxing during the revision period:
125

It takes about three months of twice-daily practice of a relaxation
exercise to develop a solid relaxation response. You can fast-track
the learning of relaxation response. To do this you will need to
practice a short relaxation exercise for about two minutes every
hour you are awake for the final two weeks before your exams.
As a start, try this exercise. Sit or lie somewhere comfortable. Work
through your whole body, muscle by muscle, tensing the muscle for
10 seconds and then relaxing it for 10 to 15 seconds. Work from
your feet through your body to your scalp. Take your time and
relax.
Dont stress if you find it difficult at first. It gets easier with practice.
Some soothing background music can also help.
When you have worked on both breathing and muscle relaxation,

you should be able to use them to respond fairly quickly to
emergent symptoms of panic or paralysing stress.
Positive suggestion
You always have a running dialogue with yourself in your head.
You say things to yourself like Oh, stupid. If you were more careful
and would not have spilled that. The reality is that you listen to
yourself about yourself. If the message is negative, you can think of
yourself in a negative way.
However, if you can change the content of that dialogue to
something positive, you may think more positively about you and
what you can do. Thus, positive self-statements and suggestions can
be important tools to turn your head around on test-performance
anxiety, reducing its levels or impact on you.
In fact, you should note, that if you combine the deep breathing
with muscle relaxation and positive self statements and
suggestions, you have what is known as self-hypnosis, a relaxed
state that allows the mind to focus and take in suggestions like: I
am a good law student. I have worked hard. I have read and
understood this material. I am prepared. I have revised this
material. I am capable of doing very well. I will relax. I will
remember. I will spot the issues. I will write quickly and neatly. I
will write well. I will succeed.
To enable yourself to hear those suggestions, you might just put
them on a tape following first the muscle relaxation exercise
instructions that proceed from your feet to your face and scalp,
followed by with the deep breathing instructions that take you to a
state of relaxed conscious breathing.
The converse of the positive suggestion is, however, to turn off
those negative messages. You need to stop yourself from thinking
them the instant that you realise that this is what you are doing.
Say stop to yourself in your head. Replace the negative statement
immediately with a positive one.
Acknowledge and reward your interim successes. When you finish a
summary, tell yourself that it is a good job done. When you stay on
schedule, acknowledge the accomplishment. Reward yourself with
breaks and treats for finishing a subsection or chapter. Tell yourself
that you deserve these rewards.
126
Guided imagery and visualisation

The ability to visualise with colourful, vivid images, rich
imagination and detailed action are skills that we have had since
childhood. It has been noted that:
These same skills have been found to be very useful in empowering
people to overcome obstacles in their lives, improve memory,
enhance learning, and to be healing physically, mentally, and
emotionally. Imagery is helpful in developing focus and
concentration; calming; coping with stress/anxiety; and increasing
positive study skills, social skills, and creative expression.
Rief, S.F.Relaxation, guided imagery and visualisation Family

education.
These techniques have been used for many years in sports to help
professional athletes achieve their optimum performance under
labels such as inner tennis. This works by visualising yourself in
situations where you are achieving your goals and being successful.
Once you can visualise yourself in any situation in your head, use
the techniques of deep breathing. Now visualise yourself doing
what you want to do in the exam.
For example, visualise yourself in great detail working diligently
taking the test. See your admission card on the desk in front of you
and your time piece where you can see it. See yourself focused only
on your paper, ignoring all around you. See yourself reading the
paper carefully and calmly, highlighting issues and organising an
approach to your answer.
Visualise yourself being relaxed and persistent and not getting
nervous or tense. See yourself confidently writing and being
confident with your answers. In your mental movie, see yourself
finishing the test, then going back and checking for careless errors.
See yourself feeling satisfied and pleased as you turn in your paper.
When you run this movie in your head frequently, it conditions you
to help make this the real script of your exam day.
Other suggestions
There are many ways to reduce and control stress levels during
study and revision periods, including:
regular exercise
proper rest
meditation
avoiding caffeine and other stimulants
preventing low blood sugar levels by having regular, healthy,
small meals
drinking chamomile, lemon balm, lavender or valerian herbal
teas, together with a spoonful of honey can be calming
eat calming foods (i.e. those that contain tryptophan, an amino
acid that boosts the formation of serotonin, the feel good,
calming brain chemical) or unrefined carbohydrates. Nuts and
bananas are rich in tryptophan, so is turkey
energy-boosting foods such as small amounts of protein (e.g.
cheese, eggs, chicken, meat) containing the amino acid
tryptamine can give you a boost when stress tires you out. Take
127
small ready-prepared portions to work and study (and, as

discussed below, to your exam)
avoid sugars and refined starches like white bread, pasta, rice
and potatoes without the skins
high-fibre whole-grain, and fruits and vegetables help keep
your blood sugar levels constant and help you feel balanced
and satisfied.
4.3.3
Controlling stress on the exam day

You will control your stress on exam day if, in addition to the
above, before the exam you:
1
Know the requirements of the exam in advance.

If possible, as part of your revision, look through old exam
papers so you know the format. This will save you time when
working through any complicated instructions when you are
under exam stress. You will also be familiar with the types of
questions that are set.
Plan for your exam day so as to avoid any

unnecessary stress.
Organise any domestic or employment responsibilities well in
advance, including planning for emergencies. For example, you
might ask someone to be on standby for anything that comes
up.
Get up early enough to do all that you have to do to function
well on the morning of the exam. If you are not a morning
person, get up at least an hour earlier so that you have time to
surface and get your brain going. Stretch, walk a bit, and read
something to get your brain working, but nothing related to the
exam.
Eat before the exam, if you are able, to keep up your stamina.
Steady blood sugar levels will help this. To achieve these, have
a little protein (cheese, yogurt, milk, meat) with some higherfibre carbohydrates: wholegrain bread, muesli, oatmeal, bran
cereal. If you cannot eat before, make sure to take something in
your pocket that can be reached and eaten quickly and quietly
(i.e., no crunching, crinkling, etc.) if you are feeling faint or
physically struggling. Half a sandwich of wholewheat bread
and mild (non-smelly) cheese could be just the thing. If you
need to take a quick break to eat it, request this of the
invigilator.
Get to the examination place early enough to make sure that
you are on time, but not so early that you are tempted to
review your notes again.
Know exactly where the examination place is. Visit it prior to
the exam, if at all possible. This will enable you not only to
know how long you need to get there, but familiarising yourself
with the environment will reduce the stress of the unknown.
Keep away from people who are likely to make you feel unsure
of yourself, either because they are super-confident or because
they panic themselves. Getting there in sufficient time but not
too early can help you here too.
Breathe!
Have an adequate supply of pens, tissues and so on that you
like with you to ensure that you do not run out of ink or have a
128
need that you cannot fulfil. While it may be hot outside, an airconditioned room can chill you and cause you to write slower,
so have a light jumper with you if you know you are sensitive
to this.
Sit in the front of the room if you prefer not to see other people
thinking or writing. If this is not possible, focus on the desk in
front of you and do your breathing exercises.
Do not review the exam with anyone. By this point, you will
have done your best, and this does not help.
Exam stress can be positive. It can help energise you to do your best
on an exam. To make sure that your stress is motivating and not
debilitating, you must learn to respond to this daunting challenge
with control and common sense. The above practices should enable
you to do this.
129
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Skills guide

Introduction to the study guide

Issues and concerns for distance learners

Using your time effectively

Identifying how you use your time now

Changing the way you use your time

Establish a study routine

Techniques for efficient reading

Strategies for reading academic texts

Summarising and effective notetaking

Assessing the effectiveness of your notes

Formats for notetaking

Some pointers for helpful notes

Researching online and using online resources

The role of electronic legal resources

The woes of the web

Lawful and ethical use of works made available online

Using the web

Some online legal resources

Essay process and planning

Revising and editing

Essay planning and time management

The structure of an essay

Other essay types

The flow of information

Attributes of academic and professional writing

Six attributes of scholarly writing

Achieving the attributes

Referencing and avoiding plagiarism

How to avoid plagiarism

Revision and exam preparation

Writing an examination paper

Apply the course ideas and issues raised

Use clear, objective arguments/support your arguments

with specific sources

Use examples and illustrations from deep specific levels

Are not merely descriptive

Managing examination stress

Assessing whether your stress levels are a problem

Techniques for managing stress

Part 1: Study skills

Introduction to the study guide

Issues and concerns for distance learners

Using your time effectively

Identifying how you use your time now

Changing the way you use your time

Establish a study routine

Techniques for efficient reading

Strategies for reading academic texts

Summarising and effective notetaking

Assessing the effectiveness of your notes

Formats for notetaking

Some pointers for helpful notes

Researching online and using online resources

The role of electronic legal resources

The woes of the web

Lawful and ethical use of works made available online

Using the web

Some online legal resources

Introduction to the study guide

Skills inventory assessment exercise

Skills guide: part 1

This assessment tool provides a baseline for identifying whether