LEGAL ENGLISH ACADEMIC ESSAYS – FEEDBACK
RESEARCH
• Use Wikipedia as a starting point but be careful when using it as source. Is there a named author? Is it reliable? For referencing a Wikipedia source see below:
Please note that the APA Style Guide to Electronic References warns writers that wikis (like Wikipedia, for example) are collaborative projects which cannot guarantee the verifiability or expertise of their entries.
OLPC Peru/Arahuay. (n.d.). Retrieved from the OLPC Wiki: http://wiki.laptop. org/go/OLPC_Peru/Arahuay
• BBC Radio 4 has an excellent series of podcast series which includes episodes on many of the topics that featured in your essays e.g.
Jury Trials
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00yyhqn
Bribery Law Reform
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00r6611
CONTENT
• Essays that were general overviews or definitions did not score as well as essays which took a critical approach or discussed the legal/social/historical/political perspective.
• If you are discussing a case, you need to say why it’s important or discuss the impact of the decision rather than just giving a summary of the facts and the judgment. An essay must be more than a case brief.
ORGANISATION
• Many essays lacked clear introductions and conclusions
• You don’t need to use headings or number your paragraphs in an essay – clear topic sentences will introduce the theme of each paragraph.
STYLE
• Avoid repetition use a range of synonyms
• Simplify your punctuation – avoid colons and semi colons followed by long lists and numerous clauses.
• Avoid unnecessary phrases e.g. “I’m going to talk about…” “The Health Care Act is an act of parliament.”
ACCURACY
• Articles – overuse of “the”
• Tenses – present perfect, overuse of the present simple, mistakes with irregular verbs
• Structure – Don’t separate your subject, verb and object. Always make sure your sentence has a subject.
• Noun-Verb agreement – check singular and plural forms E.G. THIS AND THESE
• Collocations – especially verb + preposition consists of
EXERCISE
15 years ago
