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    How Law Students Can Use Templates to Write Successful Essay Responses

    Cooley Law School

    Sep 12, 2024

    4 min read

    Exam and Study Tips Legal Writing Student Essentials Study Aids

    Summary

    • Many people cannot secure rules of law in their long-term memory, let alone write them out in full, coherent sentences under timed conditions.
    • Essay templates will allow you to plan ahead and have your issues and rules written out to preempt having to do it for the first time on a law school timed midterm examination, final examination, or bar examination.
    • Planning what the sentences look like and how they could be presented if concepts are triggered on a fact pattern gets you one step closer to crafting an on-point, well-written legal analysis essay response under timed conditions.
    How Law Students Can Use Templates to Write Successful Essay Responses
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    Never memorize something that you can look up.

    The above-quoted text attributed to the revered Albert Einstein does not necessarily ring true for lawyers in training across the country. Every law student knows that they must not only conceptualize and understand the law but also commit vast amounts of it to memory for law school examinations and the bar exam. 

    For most individuals, it is difficult to build long-term memory quickly. On top of that, even if you can secure rules of law in your long-term memory, does that mean you can write them out in full, coherent sentences under timed conditions? For some individuals, the answer is “yes,” but for most people, it is hard to take the thoughts and musings in one’s head and get them down onto paper (or typed in the computer) succinctly and intelligibly.

    Plan for Exams by Creating Essay Templates

    So, what can you do to build memory and set yourself up for success when writing essay responses? Lawyers don’t have time to reinvent the wheel every time they draft a new document; some forms are used in part or full for different documents that must be drafted. So, try taking a page out of a lawyer’s book and create forms, or in this case, essay templates. This will allow you to plan ahead of time and have your issues and rules written out to preempt having to do it for the first time on a law school timed midterm examination, final examination, or bar examination.

    How to Create Essay Templates

    The next question you may have is: how can you create templates?

    First, start by taking a legal concept and getting all of your I’s and R’s in IRAC for that particular concept in order. Don’t just bullet point or shorthand concepts as you may do in a traditional or attack outline. Rather, take it to the next level and write out the rule statement succinctly.

    Take the Sample Template at the end of this article using the tort of battery as an example. As you can see in the template, each block quote signifies a paragraph of text; commentary is also embedded with tips and suggestions. Though you will likely not include such commentary in your templates, if you are working with a particularly complex topic that could have many variations, steps, or different fact-driven rules triggered, you may want to include annotations for yourself so you remember those nuances.

    Templates Are Only a Guide

    With that said, is there a one-size-fits-all document? No—remember that your templates will be a guide, and the purpose is not to go on autopilot on an examination and dump down everything. There is still a good chance that you will need to adapt your memorized template on an exam. However, planning out what the sentences look like and how they could be presented if concepts are triggered on a fact pattern gets you one step closer to crafting an on-point, well-written legal analysis essay response under timed conditions.

    Sample Battery Essay Planning and Templating

    Paragraph 1

    Whether Plaintiff has a claim of battery against Defendant. Battery is when a defendant has intent to cause contact and an act by the defendant that brings about harmful or offensive contact to the plaintiff’s person.

    Tip: Note that this first paragraph is the big I and R in IRAC. For the big A, the rest of the paragraphs until the main C will be made up of multiple IRACs. There will be a mini IRAC for each element and sometimes even additional mini IRACs for each element if a fact-driven rule is triggered.

    Tip: Make sure to replace the bolded “Plaintiff” and “Defendant” with the names your professor gives you in the fact pattern.

    Paragraph 2

    The first element is intent to cause contact, which means defendant has purpose to cause contact or knowledge with substantial certainty that the result will occur.
    Here, . . .
    Because . . .
    Therefore, . . .

    Tip: “Here” is a good transition word that tells your professor that you are taking legally relevant facts from their fact pattern and applying them to the relevant law.

    Tip: “Because” is a good transition word that can be used to tie the legally relevant facts back to the law (this is called reasoning). There are other good words that can be used to reason, too (e.g., also, further, unlike, since).

    Paragraph 3

    Next, is there contact, which can be either direct or indirect touching. Direct is person-to-person touching where indirect can be placing forces in motion that cause a touching or touching something that is intimately connected to the plaintiff.
    Here, . . .
    Because . . .
    Therefore, . . .

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