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Have you heard about nested IRAC?
Are you looking to improve your law school essay exam performance?
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Hi, this is Beau Baez, and today I want to teach you how to use nested IRAC.
Most students know about the IRAC method, which is where you identify the issue, state
the rule, provide some analysis, and then state the conclusion.
But nested IRAC involves creating a separate IRAC for each issue and sub-issue on the exam.
Let me demonstrate this through a tortious battery example.
Derek and John are in the same high school math class.
One morning, Derek decides it will be funny to pull out John’s chair just as he's about
to sit down.
He pulls it out, and John falls on the floor.
John is not physically hurt, but he is extremely embarrassed.
Fully discuss which, if any, intentional tort Derek committed.
Now, let’s look at the type of answer I get from my first year law students: The issue
is whether Derek committed a battery against John.
Battery is the intentional contact of another in a harmful or offensive manner.
Intent is when there is the desire or knowledge to a substantial certainty that the contact
will occur.
The contact must be direct or indirect.
The contact must result in harm or offence.
Derek desired to cause John to fall, because he went to John’s chair, waited till he
sat down, and then pulled out the chair.
Though Derek did not touch John, he knew that by pulling out the chair, John would fall
on his rear, causing it to contact the ground.
Also, though John was not hurt, a person in high school would be offended by being embarrassed
by falling on his rear in front of other students.
For these reasons, Derek committed a battery.
Did you notice that this answer does use IRAC and correctly defines battery and each of
the three elements?
Unfortunately, it does so in a way that leaves the reader confused.
This student expects the reader to connect the intent rule in the third sentence with
the analysis in the sixth sentence.
Now there are some problems with this approach.
First, by putting everything into one giant paragraph, you might miss something important.
Second, the person grading the exam might not understand that those two sentences go
together.
Think of your exam as a jigsaw puzzle.
Put pieces together that connect to each other, not three rows apart from each other.
Third, your answer will look much more professional with a better organization style, which can
make the difference between getting a B or an A on the exam.
Now, let’s look at nested IRAC.
On an exam, every time you have a different concept, even if it's connected to one concept,
you should IRAC that concept in its own paragraph.
Going back to our battery example, you should start with a short introductory paragraph
that provides the issue, rule, and then a short conclusion for battery as a whole.
You then need additional paragraphs for the sub-issues, or elements as they are called.
For battery, that means three more paragraphs: one for intent, contact, and harmful or offensive.
The second paragraph then begins with the issue for that paragraph: The first issue
is whether Derek had the intent to commit a battery against John.
You then provide the rule, analysis, and conclusion for that issue.
Next, do the same thing for the remaining two elements, leaving you with four paragraphs
for this battery essay.
Let’s look at the entire essay.
You can see that the Issue for battery was provided in the first sentence, the rule for
battery was in the second sentence, and then the next three paragraphs are the analysis
for the essay using three nested IRACs.
When you use this method, you will write stronger answers because you are less likely to miss
an issue.
For example, in one large paragraph, you might forget the analysis because it's hidden in
a jumbled mess.
But with a nested IRAC, as soon as you notice that your paragraph has only two sentences
you'll know there is a problem.
So begin practicing now, and consider using the prewriting essay method I discussed in
an earlier episode.
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