Posted Class Rankings?

[Felsen]

Its nice information to know.  There is no provided topic for the essay, just provided sources.  Anyone else now starting to think about writing a bunch of essays ahead of time so those two weeks are for polish instead of brainstorming topics?

[margee]

Its nice information to know.  There is no provided topic for the essay, just provided sources.  Anyone else now starting to think about writing a bunch of essays ahead of time so those two weeks are for polish instead of brainstorming topics?

nope

[Felsen]

That's against the rules.

Can you point out where that is stated?  I just read the packet instructions again, and I didn't notice it anywhere in my second perusal.  I think that's why they give all the sources in the packet and don't allow outside citations.  The Sample Essay #1 from 2005 looks like a generically broad topic that one could do a lot of work on beforehand.

[margee]

Margee are you even going to do the writing competition?  (I'm only asking b/c of your stated disinclination to participate in journals)

ehn.  probably 

well, that is to say - if I think I have the grades I'll probably do it.  I don't really want to work on one of the other journals....  Unless it suddenly looks like fun to my inner detail nazi

[Felsen]

I'm sure that they expect most people to write the essays in the time provided.  That's why the include the citations and don't let people know about them ahead of time.  I didn't see it anywhere in the rules, though.

If I do this, throughout the first year I'll write one essay every 1-2 months.  I'll choose mostly generic topics that will probably have support from year to year.  Freedom of Speech, Illegal Search and Seizure, Role of government in enforcing social equalization all sound like possible topics.  I should have 3-6 essays by the end of the year if I did this.  I might have even more if I have to write a bunch of practice essays for examinations.

Nothing that I write ahead of time will actually be useable as it is.  What they will provide is a bunch of ideas on topics I know I could write about.  I'd still have to re-write most of it to use the provided citations, but with luck the outline would stay intact.

If I'm unlucky, I end up with a bunch of essays, and some extra writing practice under my belt.  I can still keep the essays around as starter ideas for student notes (presuming I make one of the publications) or for developing into academic papers in case I decide to try and get published.

I did read one rule that I'll have to be mindful of if I do this:

THE ESSAY THAT YOU HAND IN MUST BE THE PRODUCT OF YOUR EFFORTS
ALONE. It is a violation of the Honor Code to solicit or use advice on how to write your essay.
This includes help with structure, style, argument, or proofreading. It also includes reading essays
from previous years, except for the sample answers provided on the Texas Law Review write-on web
page. Under no circumstances may you discuss the contents of this packet with other students
participating in the Write-On Competition.

If I do this, I basically can't show these essays to anybody else.

[Felsen]

To add insult to injury, I believe all journals at UT use the same write-on to determine membership.

The link Robert posted clears this up.  Yes, many of the journals do use the same write-on to determine membership.  It appears that there may be some journals that have additional or different write-ons at different times.  So if you miss out on the first wave of write-ons, you still have a chance later.

[LitDoc]

Eight pages in two weeks, with open topic, sounds pretty easy. When I talked with Minnesota (where I thought I was going before I got in at Texas), they said it was 20-30 pages in two weeks, with an assigned topic (though the evaluative emphasis was on the citation/documentation used in the essay, not on the essay's content).

They also had a grade-only path onto LR, though -- so maybe this stiff write-on path was made stiff so as to restrict the number of write-ons...?