I just turned in my first graded legal memo (our last memo wasn't graded and we just got back a lot of comments - mostly unhelpful). On one hand I'm overwhelmingly relieved b/c I don't have to fight with it anymore. On the other I hate knowing that it was so bad but there was just nothing more I could do. I'm so confused and I've spoken with the Prof and the TA about a billion times with no clarification. I know confusion is good because that's how I'll learn - by mistake - but this is incredible frustrating since it's 25% of my final grade. Apparently everyone starts with bad grades but gets better. BUT, if my "bad grad" is substantially worse than all the other "bad grades" I'll end up with a C b/c there is no curve in this stupid class. ARGH. The thing is I really want to do well in legal writing, not because of the grade, but because I know I'll need to use it a lot of I go into the area of law I'm thinking about. So I'm frustrated that a poor grade will keep me from pursuing some positions (interviewer: um this job requires really good writing skills - yours are shit, goodbye) and also that I seem to be running laps around the dung heap. I genuinely hope I get better at this, but I feel like the bar is raising with each assignment and I don't even have a good handle on the last "easy" assignment.
Now that I've been up all night, I have to go to three classes today and prepare for Crim tomorrow where I've done no reading b/c of the stupid memo. How am I going to make it through this day, let alone week?
3 comments:
As a legal writing professor, I am sad to hear that you are still confused after talking to your professor and the TA. Don't worry too much because everyone else probably writes at the same level as you.
Hopefully e. mcpan is right. It's quite possible that most everyone else feels exactly the same way, even if they're not saying it out loud.
btw, I feel like an idiot commenting because I'm not yet in law school...but I wanted you to know I've been lurking around here lately. I enjoy your blog.
Hang in there. My Legal Practice class is the same way. No matter how much I talk to Prof and TA I just get an even more abiguous answer. Everyone else probably feels the same way you do, and some haven't talked to the people you have. You'll probably get surprised and do better than you think.
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