Write on! A Guide to Getting on Law Review

Abstract

Many law reviews select their members using a competition known as a "write on". Every year, many first year law students who have little to no experience with legal academic writing struggle to make sense of the basic principles necessary to do well in this endeavor. This Comment guides these students by presenting a strategy to succeed in this competition. By understanding some key information, a prospective applicant can increase her chances of getting on law review and improve her writing and editing abilities. It is my hope that this Comment will not only provide a benefit for individual applicants to law reviews, but will also have the downstream effect of boosting the quality of legal scholarship published by student-run law journals.

Keywords: law review; writing competition; legal writing; academic writing; student; legal education; law school; thesis development; tips; tricks; bluebook; citation; editing; editor; scholar; self-help

JEL Classification: K10; K30; K40