Let Snoop Dogg’s Olympic Torch Light Your Bar Exam Essays
When the Summer Olympics officially kicks off Friday, an unusual torchbearer will be carrying the Olympic flame through the streets of Paris ahead of the opening ceremony: American rapper Snoop Dogg.
But it might not be such a stretch for Snoop to be part of the largest sporting event of the year after all. The rapper, who is also contributing to NBC's coverage of the Games, is widely known in the sports world for his Snoop Youth Football League. The championship game is called the "Snooper Bowl."
I argue, too, that it might not be such a stretch to connect Snoop to bar exam essay writing.
Hear me out.
Some people discourage the use of contractions in legal writing. However, there isn’t really a hard and fast rule about when contractions are and aren’t allowed.
But when it comes to bar exam essay writing—and even the Multistate Performance Test where the examinee is asked to complete a legal task, like drafting a memorandum of law in support of a motion—I encourage examinees to use them. And I encourage examinees to use them freely.
An example of a contraction is saying “isn’t” instead of “is not.”
So, here's the Snoop connection ...
I tell examinees to drop the word "not" and to use contractions to improve clarity and readability by playfully referencing a modified Snoop song title—“Drop It Like It’s Not”! (Of course, that's a slight modification of Snoop's "Drop It Like It's Hot.")
I recommend examinees use contractions because it’s sometimes easy to inadvertently leave out the word “not” or another word during the stress of the examination. (And, yes, it’s okay to have split infinitives in your bar exam responses, too.) Leaving out the word “not” in the sentence “The defendant is guilty” when the examinee meant to state “The defendant is not guilty” can cause confusion for the grader who’s trying to get through the stack of essay responses as quickly as possible.
Remember that you want a bar exam response that is clear and easy to read. Requiring the grader to spend more time on your response to decipher its meaning because the writing is unclear, unstructured, or disorganized can have a negative impact on how the grader views your response.
It’s also important to remember you’re not writing a law review article on the bar exam. You’re writing a 30- or 90-minute answer. The examiners know that an examinee’s response isn’t going to be perfect and publishable. But they do want a response that’s readable and complete.
Bryan A. Garner also is a proponent of using contractions in legal writing. And if it’s good enough in legal writing, it’s good enough for bar exam essay writing. Here’s an excerpt from one of his columns that originally appeared in the December 2016 issue of the ABA Journal:
… most legal writers have been conditioned to think of contractions as verboten. They’ll write: “They do not allege this because they cannot” instead of “They don’t allege this because they can’t.” You feel the difference? The former feels robotic.
But many superb legal writers use contractions freely. Judge Frank Easterbrook, Judge Neil Gorsuch, Justice Elena Kagan (only in dissents), Judge Alex Kozinski and Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. are just a few examples. Start noticing contractions when you read any kind of nonfiction that you enjoy.
Contractions can play a big role in creating an agreeable voice. I recently wrote a book with a dozen illustrious appellate judges as co-authors: a 920-page treatise called The Law of Judicial Precedent. With 13 different writers contributing to a single book without signed sections, the challenge was to make the voice consistent throughout. In signing on to the project, my co-authors agreed that I would have final say on all matters of style.
Apart from tightening, sharpening and brightening through 250-plus drafts, I inserted contractions wherever I felt the idiomatic need. Perhaps more than any other change, that one gave the book a consistent tone throughout. And it led to other good edits. Remember: One good edit leads to another. The goal was to have the book speaking as the voice of reason—but always an approachable, companionable voice.
So, remember, drop it like it’s not!
