Chapter 6: Legal Writing:

[Erin Lain]

Comment 1:

IRAC is not just a war torn country! We have already discussed the
IRAC (Issue, Rule, Analysis, Conclusion) form of writing in previous
chapters, so I won’t go into too much detail here, but by the time you
are done with your first semester of law school, I hope you are
eating, breathing and dreaming in the IRAC format. Seriously, it is
the best way to organize your information. Don’t be tempted to come up
with (insert your own name)’s method of analysis, because it just
won’t be as good as IRAC! This is a tried and true, easy way of
organizing your memos, test answers, case briefs, shopping lists…
etc.

The chapter does an excellent job of breaking down each element. There
are a few things that they do not mention that may confuse you as you
sit down to write your first memo:

1.You may use the IRAC format more than once in your paper. There may
be more than one issue that you need to address so you may use several
IRAC analysis progressions in your paper.

2.During the Analysis of IRAC you will likely cite cases to show how
the courts have interpreted the rule that is at issue. (One time when
I was called on in class, and I started talking about a legal concept,
the teacher asked, “What is this, the law according to Erin?” Remember
you want to be very strategic about your analysis, it’s not the law
according to you, it’s the law according to the cases that you have
found.

3.Be succinct, to the point, and use plain English. Remember how I
told you to look up words you don’t understand? Do the same in your
memo writing. Don’t let the teacher think you are using words you
don’t understand.

Comment 2:

Writing Rules: The rules for the parentheticals, introductory signals,
and subsequent history are primarily the same in Bluebook and ALWD. My
suggestion is to use every mentioned parenthetical, introductory
signal and subsequent history citation form in your memos. For some
reason I got the impression that I could gloss over these, and not
really use them in my memos and boy did it show (primarily because
they went through these citation techniques very quickly).

Comment 3:

Plagiarism is taken VERY seriously in the legal profession and law
school. That being said, almost every sentence in your memo should
have a citation, because when you think about, even if it’s your own
opinion that you’re writing, that thought came from somewhere. The
moral of the story is that it is much easier and safer to cite almost
every sentence than to leave a few cites out and face the honor
board!

Comment 4:

You will notice in the sample memorandum that the author uses the IRAC
method, but it looks more like: Issue, Conclusion/Rule, Facts, and
Analysis. You should know that IRAC is just a method for organizing
information, and not a rigid format. The most important thing is to
use all of the elements of IRAC in a cohesive manner. Your Legal
Research and Writing Professor will instruct you further about
organization of your memos.

Comment 5/Questions:

Hello out there in cyber land. I encourage you to post any questions
you have about law school, even if it’s not related to the book we are
reading. I know it’s probably hard to articulate questions you might
have, so even if it’s just a topic you want me to talk about, I would
be happy to do so! If you are uncomfortable with posting, you can
always email me privately at erin...@drake.edu.