Critiquing Law Students’ Writing: What the Students Say Is Effective

It seemed worthwhile to study the comments legal writing instructors put on students\u27 papers and ask the readers of those comments - the students themselves - which comments were the most useful. This article describes such a study that was conducted by the author using students and faculty at the University of Puget Sound School of Law. The results should be useful to new legal writing faculty who are striving to learn how to critique their students\u27 writing effectively, as well as to experienced legal writing faculty who are interested in whether the conventional wisdom about critiquing is borne out when examined from the student\u27s perspective