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Let the fun begin!
As of today, Spring Break has begun!
Except that it hasn't.
In a brilliant bit of scheduling, the beginning of spring break at GW just happens to coincide perfectly with the beginning of the journals write-on competition. So, instead of flying off to warm and sunny locales to forget about the law for a whole week, GW 1Ls are hunkering down with their computers, highlighters, and bluebooks to dig into over 200 pages of the most fascinating reading they've ever encountered. Doesn't that sound like fun?
Thus far this competition is distinguished by the seriousness with which it takes itself. For weeks I've heard a steady drumbeat of cautions against violating any of the competition's rules, followed always by ominous threats of the consequences for such violations. My favorite threat: You may be disqualified from even taking the bar exam. Horror of horrors! Say it isn't so! The rules are much like those of "Fight Club," so of course the first rule is: You don't talk about the journals competition. Yeah, that's the second rule, too.
Oops. Did I just mention the journal competition? I may have just violated the whole honor code and rules of the thing. Ssssh! Don't tell anyone!
So, ok. I have until 8 p.m. next Monday to get through this packet, Bluebook a list of about 17 sources, and write a 6-page note. And since I can't say more than that, I won't.
But I will say that I can't wait to be finished with this so spring break can begin for real. In the past month I've prepared for and competed in a Client Counseling Competition and a Mock Trial Competition, and I've written and turned in a brief for the Moot Court Competition, which will actually take place at the end of March. Sheesh. And I'm doing all these competitions why?
Oh well, no time to think about that now -- it's Bluebook time!
Posted March 5, 2004 04:12 PM | law school
As much as it sucks to kill half of your break doing the competition, just imagine if you had to do it in May right after turning in your last exam. It isn't much fun, but the timing could definitely be worse. Best of luck.
Posted by: Sam at March 5, 2004 05:31 PM
Good luck!
Posted by: Shelley at March 7, 2004 09:38 AM
Thanks, Shelley! It's going ... um, ok.
And Sam, you're right -- there's no good time for this, so now is probably better than at the end of semester. If you're a journal editor, you prbably won't get much of a break either since you'll have to be "grading" all these "notes." Ah, the joys of journal, eh?
BTW: How does the whole evaluation process works? Once the submission deadline passes, it would be awesome to see some explanation of who evaluates these things and how. (I know, I probably should have figured that out *before* the competition, but ... oh well.)
Posted by: ambimb at March 7, 2004 09:36 PM
I think that is just cruel. We get to do ours some time in July. So everyone takes a week off from work to hunker down and write it. My break isn't until next week, but I'll be sure to think of you while I'm sipping rum punches. :)
Posted by: so sue me at March 9, 2004 01:48 PM
Dude, are you sure you want to do this? What's the payoff, exactly, from this investment? I hope you make it on (so you know you can), and then decide you have better things to do with your time.
Posted by: Scheherazade at March 10, 2004 05:52 AM
Scheherazade: Well, it's over now, over and done, and I enjoyed the competition, really. I'd love to make it on journal and be able to tell them no-thanks, but since I like writing academic-type things, I might put up with the bluebooking crapola in order to write and publish a note. Although someone on your site (I think Carolyn Elephant from My Shingle) said that it was easy for law students to get notes published on their own w/out being on a journal, other people have told me that's just not true. That's part of the reason I did the competition. But also, like I said, it was fun. I know, I'm nutty, huh?
Posted by: ambimb at March 10, 2004 06:13 AM
Wish I could tell you how they get graded but I am blissfully ignorant as to the process. I do know there is a technical score as to the bluebooking and such and then another component involving style and clarity and such. Sorry I'm not much of a help; I'm just glad I don't have to spend the summer grading them.
Posted by: Sam at March 10, 2004 12:41 PM
They grade based on who they're friends are that hand in the competition. anonymous my ass
Posted by: Anonymous at March 22, 2005 03:05 AM
To the unnanmed commenter from early this morning: Some of the staffing on GW's journals indicate's you're correct, which is no surprise. Of course, if the competitions are graded by social security number, grading based on friendship would require a lot of intent for the grader's to learn and look for and make sure they actually graded their friends' competitions. In fact, that could be kind of hard to do. But I'll be grading some competitions this summer so I'll be happy to talk about what the process involves once I'm more familiar with it. I imagine rather than being cronyistic, the process suffers more from being arbitrary since the "graders" generally have little to no experience comparing writing quality and since comparing writing quality is largely arbitrary even for those with experience.
Posted by: ambimb at March 22, 2005 05:37 AM
