In my previous blog posts, we have looked a lot at how to reference sources in OSCOLA and what some of these sources might be. Now, we will be putting this into practice by considering how you should write a legal research essay. Some points will depend on your university or institution, such as layout, and obviously basic formatting choices such as font and font size will.
However, how you choose to approach the essay can be a lot more flexible, as there is no one right answer to this – you will need to find research and drafting methods that work for you and your style of learning and writing. Before starting your first essay, try out a few research methods and see how you get on with each one. This will be invaluable to you for later work.
What is the Purpose of a Legal Research Essay?
Before you start any research, before you even look at the question set, first consider what the purpose of a legal research essay is and what the person marking it will be looking for. Again, it is very important to refer to your individual institution’s guidelines for this, as they will often give information on how you will be marked and what they are expecting your work to be. If you still have questions, ask your tutor or similar – they should be able to help with general enquiries like these.
So, what is the purpose of a legal research essay? Well, the main aim of your writing should be to approach the question set by taking a particular view on the topic and providing a possible answer or interpretation. You should create a well-structured argument for the view you have taken or an informed discussion of the relevant points.
How Do You Write a Good Legal Research Essay?
To do this, you should use strong sources to back up your writing and know how to use these in the best way possible. This means choosing your sources carefully for both reliability and relevance, as there is no point in citing sources if they are from, for example, Wikipedia or not related to the topic at hand. You should also be able to use sources to back up points you are making, while still using your own words and drawing some of your own conclusions.
To help build a strong argument, you will also need to consider the opposing viewpoint and any possible counter-arguments that could be made in response to your writing. It is no good ignoring this area and hoping that your readers or examiner won’t notice! Instead, you can make your own argument much stronger by acknowledging these counter-arguments and refuting them.
To do this, you will need to think about why these counter-arguments are incorrect or flawed and how to present this in your writing. It is vital that you use sources to back up your writing here as well, otherwise your essay will not be very convincing. Of course, you may well not be able to prove that a certain argument is wrong, especially if it concerns a moral or ethical issue, but acknowledging and addressing it will still improve your writing.
Doing this, as well as using sources for your initial arguments, will help to show off your research skills. As you would expect, this is a very important part of legal writing and you want yours to shine. This means that you will use sources to back up each new point you are making and cite them correctly, using whichever referencing system you have been given to use. Make sure you include all the sources you have cited in your work in the bibliography or reference list at the end, as well as other sources that you have used but not cited in the text at any particular point.
You also need good writing skills, so make sure that you don’t have sloppy grammar and spelling errors, that all of your work flows well from paragraph to paragraph and that you have used headings and sub-headings as appropriate. To help with this, make a draft first and read your writing back to yourself when you have finished.
In addition, make sure that you are applying your knowledge rather than just describing the law and legal issues. The higher the level you are writing at, the more you will be expected to analyse rather than just remembering the issues and repeating them. Try to avoid paraphrasing sources; instead, use them to build an argument that is unique to the question asked.
Also, make sure that your answer stays on topic and remains relevant to the question asked. Avoid any diversion or going into too much detail about a minor point. Use the allowed word count to deal with the question asked, rather than wasting it on areas that you can’t earn marks for.
Similarly, make sure that you follow the question exactly. If necessary, go through the question first, underlining the key issues and words. To help, you can write out a plan first to decide how your answer will be structured and how it relates to the question. Ensure that you have answered all of the question and not missed out any parts.
Wrapping Up
I hope that this has helped you with your legal research essay. In my next OSCOLA blog post, we will be looking at how to plan and write your answer, so come back in two weeks if you want to read more!
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