Welcome to LearnLawBetter.
Today I want to debunk the myth that writing an essay is part art and part science.
This is a dangerous myth, because it discourages many students from even trying to improve.
Hi, this is Beau Baez, and today I want to deal with something you may have heard after
asking a professor for advice on doing better on what you could do better on an essay exam.
The professor, at some point during the conversation, says that exam writing is part art and part
science.
I even used to say garbage like that when I was a young teacher.
What the professor is really telling you is that you really can’t improve, and there
is nothing that he or she can do to help you.
You’re either born with this art or you aren’t.
If it’s innate, then you are doomed.
But if this is a skill that you can learn, then you can improve.
Students come to law school with different skills and abilities.
Some have had lots of experience writing technical essays and others, just haven't.
Those with strong technical writing skills do better than those without that experience.
That is not art.
I’ve read thousands of essay exams, and what I’ve seen is students at various stages
in their writing career.
I can count, on one hand, the number of times I have seen great writers during the first
semester of law school.
And only once, a student who had writing skills that surpassed my own.
Since his name was also Bo, I jokingly surmise that there must be something about the name.
You may be asking, why would a professor tell me that law is part art and part science if
it isn’t true?
One reason is that it just sounds true, at least until you are challenged by someone else.
That’s what happened to me.
I gave the whole “its part science, part art” argument to a senior professor
with a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology.
He helped me to understand that higher level writing skills are based on an amalgamation of lower
levels skills.
What that means, in the context of essay writing, is that there are many skills that we lump
together and conclude that someone is either a strong writer or weak writer.
For example, essay writing is made up of the ability to organize thoughts, write in paragraph
form, use decent spelling, follow English grammar, organize sentences in a paragraph,
use of topic sentences, and on and on.
Once you realize that there is no dark art, some hidden path for the selected few, you
can begin figuring out how to improve.
Depending on where you start your journey, you may have more or less skills you need
to learn to catch up with the top writers in your class.
But make no mistake, someone that started essay writing in high school has an advantage,
but not an insurmountable one.
The key is continuous improvement.
To this day, my writing just keeps improving.
Recently I was writing in a forum, and someone compared my writing to Faulkner.
Now, I was certainly flattered by the comment, but I recognize he would not have made that
comment even ten years ago.
Becoming a better writer takes determination.
You need to first diagnose where you are and then work on developing those lower level skills.
Once you’ve mastered those skills, then you start working on higher skills, and higher skills.
The key is to keep practicing until you improve.
The biggest mistake I see from students, is that they begin to practice writing essay exams, without
breaking it down first.
All that accomplishes is more poorly written essays.
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