Melville (and Great News!)

I’m definitely not a fan of Herman Melville.  I’ve never had to read Moby Dick (something I’m VERY grateful for), but for criminal law, I’ve had to read Billy Budd.  First off, Melville’s writing style is a mess. He liked run-ons and way too much description.  Plus, he packs so much extraneous facts that have no relevance to the actual story that you need a shovel to dig through to the actual story.  From the commiserating we’ve all done between and before classes, I understand Moby Dick’s even worse.  Now you may be asking why we’re reading Billy Budd for Criminal Law.  Well, my professor’s using it as the fact pattern for us to write (with a partner) a two page appellate brief. However, this brief doesn’t actually count for anything, yet we have to do it.  It’s just that the top two pairs get the opportunity (if they want it) to do oral arguments on Monday Nov 22 after classes for extra points on the final (just two or three points). Since we all also have a 10-12 page paper due on Monday of next week and we’re way behind in Crim Law, we’re less than thrilled about having this brief due this week.  My partner and I are getting together after classes today to do ours.  I’ve decided to go through SparkNotes for it, since it was taking me forever to slog through Billy Budd and I was having to go to SparkNotes anyway just to understand what was going on.  For the important chapters, I’ll reference the book’s actual text but I’m not going to read it all.  I simply don’t have that kind of time.

Yesterday was my exam for Basic Legal Research. It wasn’t bad and I think I did well enough on it.  It’s just a one credit class, so if I truly bombed it, it’s not the end of the world.  With the quiz and first two assignments graded, I have a 92% in research.  I know I got a few wrong on the exam, but I don’t think I got too many wrong.  *Shrugs* we’ll see.   But one exam down, five still to go.  Next Monday night, I’m going to download and install ExamSoft.  I don’t want to play with it now, as I need to concentrate on Memo 2 and playing with a new program will definitely be a distraction.  I so don’t want to write Memo 2…the subject is a pain and I’m not terribly fond of writing papers. I can handle it, but I’m not terribly fond of it. Most Tuesday nights are low on homework (though not as low tonight, now that I think about it, since I’ll be staying after to work on the Billy Budd thing), I’m planning to print off all the cases I might be using and figure out what parts of which cases I’m going to use (plus, weed my 15 cases down to 8-10).  Today we have a question/answer session regarding the memo, and one question I’ve got is how many case discussion paragraphs we should have. Though she’s suggested not writing those until the end (which makes sense), we still need to know while writing the analysis because that will impact how many cases we use as factual comparisons/analogies. The other cases get used as simple citations and are explained parenthetically.

After my partner and I work on the brief, I need to do Contracts (though technically I could bring it home with me). I have to read both from the Casebook and from PCL (Perspectives on Contract Law).  During tomorrow’s three hour break, I’ll read Civil Procedure and start dealing with my argument for Memo 2.

Okay, finally got my Criminal Law midterm grade. This one was actually worth points – essentially 10 points and the final is worth 90 points.  I got a 9.2/10!  I’m seriously goggling!  The highest score was a 9.7.  I knew I’d hit the first question out of the park, but I really thought I’d bombed the second question.  Apparently not, given that score.  While I definitely won’t be resting on my laurels, it’s good to know my study methods worked and that I’m understanding the material (and how it applies to new fact patterns).  Things definitely seem to be going well in law school and my hard work seems to be paying off.  There’s certainly a lot of reading, and you have to be a good reader to get through it (not just because there’s a lot of it, but because it’s not easy reading).  Beyond that, a lot of the hard work is thinking work.  You have to be willing to think through the hard questions, because those are really the only kind that professors ask. There are some soft ball type questions early in the semester, but by the mid-point of your first semester, there are no more easy questions.  They ask hard questions and whether you’re the guinea pig or you volunteer, you’d best be prepared to back up your answer.  As a result, when you read cases, it’s not enough to just read and brief them.  You have to think about them, think about where they lead, think about what might happen if small changes were made, etc.  You have to think that way not only for class, but also for exams. Professors give you fact patterns and you have to apply the principles and concepts you learned to that fact pattern, come up with a conclusion, and then back it up.  Typically, the professors don’t care which position you take, so long as you can make a good argument for it.  The great grade on the mid-term almost makes up for the Melville mess!

"Life is measured not by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away."

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