Legal Writing and Research - Reflective Essay PDF

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reflective essay - took a great-deal of time not very concise lost marks...

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In this essay I will examine four different areas of improvement from my Public Law essays in relation to my academic development with focus on legal skills. In my first paragraph I will examine the biggest weakness highlighted by my public law essay: critical analysis. In my second paragraph research skills and usage. In paragraph 3 & 4 I will look at the development of my strengths these include my structuring and use and flow of language and the ways in which I aim to continue these as strengths as I move to level 5 and 6.

My essay feedback stipulated my ‘main weaknesses’1 was that I failed to ‘sufficiently engage with a number of the valid points to show why these are more persuasive than the critic’ 2 in part I believe this may be due to failings in my research, an improvement that I will further discuss later. However, in some places it appears I had the ability and knowledge but failed to utilize it in the correct way to improve my writings persuasiveness and demonstrate a deeper ‘comprehensive analysis of all central issues.’3 Which would have permitted me to a first-grade boundary at level 4

The following paragraph is a perfect example of this:

‘This system is meant to prevent inertia but in fact it perpetuates it, it prevents change by making it financially and democratically next to impossible for new parties to gain traction and disengages the electorate by forcing campaign efforts into ‘swing’ constituencies. Most importantly it makes the voter feel hopeless unless they are the winner of ‘The lotter election’ their vote can count for nothing, they have no agency, to have no agency is to have no impact which is when we feel like we are in an elective dictatorship, where and elected party has so much power that they are almost free to do as they please’

Upon reading Legal 4 and The Successful Law Student: An Insider’s Guide to Studying Law 5 and reflecting on my guidance. I can appreciate that the first half of the paragraph skims over some potentially important critical points. My suggestion that it prevents change my making it financially and democratically impossible would have been far more persuasive and critical if I acknowledged the varying effects and assessed these issues. Further to this much of this paragraphed focused on the voters’ feelings, although voters’ feelings are important this is a poor argument in law and failed to add strength to my essay or be a good use of a limited word count. I suggest it has the effect of undermining my previously critical arguments as it weakens the credibility of my understanding. I also was able to see I made the mistake of being critical rather than critically analysing the FPTP electoral system and a change in language shifts this paragraph from being a rambling opinion to an critical assessment:

1 Personal Feedback from Napoleon Xanthoulis to author (12th February 2021) 2 Ibid 3 The University of Portsmouth: Level 4 grading criteria cited in University of Portsmouth, Public Law: 2021 Level 4 (The University Of Portsmouth 2021) 4 Emily Finch and Stefan Fafinski, Legal Skills (8th edn, Oxford University Press 2021) 399 5 Imogen Moore and Craig Newbery-Jones, The Successful Law Student: an Insider’s Guide to Studying Law (1st edn, Oxford University Press 2018) 222

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‘This system is meant to prevent inertia however it is vital to assess to what degree it inadvertently perpetuates it. The FPTP system can be criticized for its use of constituencies which is ineffective at achieving true democracy due to its unproportionate measures of votes to representation in parliament. Further to this it’s important to consider the financial implications this system poses, the ‘swing’ consciences cause focused funding as parties will focus efforts where they are able to win seats are which often has the effect to discourage new or less popular parties from becoming popular as constituents often tactically vote to avoid their vote being wasted. These issues are significant and when we compare these issues with (another system) we see we can avoid these problems.’

The exploration into critical analysis also highlighted the importance of being critical of your research and sources. My research was my second biggest issue holding back my mark. the level 4 grading criteria requires ‘considerable research’6 for a grade 70 and above but my essay and the subsequent feedback showed I did ‘…not [have] a very good understanding’ 7 and did ‘…not include a good number of authoritative sources…’ 8 after reflecting on the amount of research in my essay and the types of sources its clear these conflate to a lack of credible and critical research and a failure to appreciate the distinction between the different the levels of authority attached to various sources. I reflect a large contributor to my lack of research was due to apprehension to use the various legal databases: likely causing the research to be very time consuming and as such I could not complete enough in the time frame I allocated myself. To combat this issue I have taken time to read information and user guides on how to make the daunting processes simpler sources such as West Law Classic: How to retrieve and search for cases 9 was helpful in breaking down the search page making research feel less challenging as it explained the use of keyword search and the ‘search within results’ feature as such in the future I will not be so adverse to the research which will allow me to be more efficient so the volume of research can increase with in the time scale and with the knowledge I have learnt I can be more selective when it comes to the types of sources and their varying authorities.

Although it is important to address and improve on my weaknesses, I also wanted to support my strengths. One of which is highlighted in my feedback was my ‘good structure’ 10 and my ability to link points in ‘…clear manner.’11 However the marking criteria for a first at level 5 requires ‘excellent communication skills’12

It is my opinion that my previous essay structure could be improved, the introduction fails to set a clear road map of my essay which is important to achieve a clear thesis and well defined context13 Further to this my paragraphs three and four are very similar and to each other and repeat the same content which makes my 6 The University of Portsmouth: Level 4 grading criteria cited in University of Portsmouth, Public Law: 2021 Level 4 (The University Of Portsmouth 2021) 7 Personal Feedback from Napoleon Xanthoulis to author (12th February 2021) 8 Ibid 9 'How To Retrieve And Search For Cases' (Thomson Reuters Practical Law, 2021) accessed 2 November 2021. 10 Personal Feedback from Napoleon Xanthoulis to author (12 th February 2021) 11 Ibid 12 The University of Portsmouth: Level 5 grading criteria cited in University of Portsmouth, Equality Law: 2021/2022 Level 5 (The University Of Portsmouth 2021) 13 Ibid

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writing disorganised and repetitive as well as wasting word count which could be more efficiently used elsewhere in my essay, to provide further analysis or evidence of my research perhaps. In my second year I am aiming for first class grades, so this is something that is important to improve. For guidance on this I went to the study support website and engaged with some essays on essay structure which I found particularly useful, these essays highlighted the way that structure can completely change essays and ways in which particularly introductions can be key in setting out you’re writing for a high mark. These essays also

suggested the importance on a wider scale when moving towards careers in Law and suggestions on how to be concise without cutting into important information.

The other element I want to maintain is a good use of language. A good use of language is always important but particularly in Law as the possible consequences of poor and subpar communication can be major, Law also has within it a lot of language that holds a legal definition a swell as a classical definition, and it is important to know the difference. In saying this a large and vital part of modern Law and the job of lawyers is to make the language digestible and understandable without the to do this is great transferable skill and something I am keen to continue to improve as I move through my academic development. The ways in which I have tried to develop my knowledge is through tools such as glossaries and legal encyclopaedias I have also created my own glossary of legal terminology which I add to every time I come across a word or phrase that I do not understand. I think my personal glossary helped me a great deal in my public law essay however moving into level 5 my understanding of key terminology is stretched wider and deeper so these other tools will aid in that.

In conclusion I found this task incredibly informative and useful. Particularly in reflection of my weakness I was unaware of many of the recourses available to me and within my research I feel I have a great deal of tools to improve my learning

Bibliography 7 WAYS TO ENHANCE YOUR LEGAL RESEARCH SKILLS' (Medium, 2021)

accessed 29 November 2021 2021. Critical Thinking. The University of Portsmouth. 2021. Online Research Methods Glossary. The University of Portsmouth. 'How To Retrieve And Search For Cases' (Thomson Reuters Practical Law, 2021) accessed 2 November 2021 Foster S, How to Write a Better Law Essay (5th edn, Pearson 2019)

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Cottrell S, Critical Thinking Skills (Palgrave Macmillan 2005) Finch E, and Fafinski S, Legal Skills (8th edn, Oxford University Press 2021) Gibbs G, Learning By Doing (The Geography Discipline Network (GDN) 1988) LexisNexis Academic User Guide (LexisNexis 2021) Moore I, and Newbery-Jones C, The Successful Law Student (1st edn, Oxford University Press 2018) West H and others, 'Writing A Successful Essay' (2019) 43 Journal of Geography in Higher Education...