Want to do better on your exams? All you need is one word

Advice from Gtown law prof Jonah Perlin:

Law Students: Want to do better on your exams? All you need is one word.

That word is BECAUSE.

Every semester I read 100s of pages of student writing and I find myself giving the same advice over and over: tell me why. What LAW? What FACTS?

And one way to force yourself to do that and to tell the reader why is to use the word because.

Without using the word because it is easy to make conclusory arguments (my least favorite law school word). Where you just say the law is met or worse that the law is met because the definition of the law is met but don’t identify the key facts.

Bad: John battered Sam.

Better: John battered Sam because his fist touched him.

Best: Battery requires physical contact. John made physical contact with Sam because John punched him on the playground.

You can always remove the “because” or write it out for style (I call this the “implicit” because) but writing it first makes you show your work.

Think of it like high school geometry. You only get credit if you show your work to get to the answer. Because forces that!

You don’t get credit in law school (or in law for that matter) by making your reader figure out WHY. That is your job.

Saying “because” forces you to show your work and that works for law school exams because the professor needs to see the connection between law and fact and conclusion.