What is a Note or Comment?
A Note or Comment is a work of legal scholarship written by a law journal student, generally during his or her 2L year and the first year he or she is a member of a law journal. Notes or Comments may be selected for publication in the law journal. Articles, in contrast, typically are written by non-students, such as law professors or experts in certain subject areas.
Law schools differ in what they consider to be a Note versus a Comment. For instance, the Yale Law Journal defines a Note as a work of legal scholarship that "should advance a particular area of legal scholarship beyond its current state, make a detailed argument, and provide persuasive evidence for each of its conclusions," whereas the Yale Law Journal defines a Comment as a piece of legal scholarship that "should present a concise yet still original argument and have minimal literature review. Comments often (but need not necessarily) respond to a recent development in the law, such as cases, legislation, law review articles, lawsuits, administrative rulings, and executive orders." In contrast, other law journals, such as those at Northwestern Pritzker School of Law, view Notes as works of legal scholarship that primarily analyze recent court decisions, whereas they define Comments as works of legal scholarship that "more broadly consider an issue of law."
Your Note or Comment must follow your law journal's formatting specifications regarding margins, spacing, font, font size, and number of required pages.
Textbooks for Students
Academic Legal Writing: Law Review Articles, Student Notes, Seminar Papers, and Getting on Law Review, 5th Ed. by Publication Date: 2016Companion website.
(The book evolved from the author's article, Writing a Student Article, 48 J. Legal Educ. 247 (1998), HeinOnline )
The Legal Scholar's Guidebook by Call Number: (online)Publication Date: 2020Ebook.
"This textbook will provide detailed guidance for individuals drafting scholarly legal writing including law review articles, casenotes, and seminar papers. It guides writers through topic selection, preemption checking, researching, evaluating sources, outlining, and drafting the scholarly article. It also teaches students the value of critical reading, critical thinking, and development of analytical frameworks"--Provided by publisher.
Modern Legal Scholarship: A Guide to Producing and Publishing Scholarly and Professional Writing by Publication Date: 2020Print
Scholarly Writing: Ideas, Examples, and Execution, 3d ed. by Publication Date: 2019
Chapters in Broader Legal Writing Texts
Culture to Culture: A Guide to U.S. Legal Writing by Publication Date: 2005A legal writing text aimed at students trained in other legal systems. Appendix F is called "Writing the Scholarly Paper."
Effective Lawyering: A Checklist Approach to Legal Writing and Oral Argument, 2d ed. by Publication Date: 2012
Guide to Legal Research and Writing from the Transnational Perspective by Publication Date: 2008Text about writing about comparative and transnational law. Part III, Guide for the Legal Writing Process, includes discussion of topic selection and research and on writing. Part IV discusses comparative law research and citation, as well as publishing the seminar paper.
Lost in Translation: Effective Legal Writing for the International Legal Community by Publication Date: 2013Print.
Text aimed at foreign legal practitioners and law students. Chapter 7 is Academic Legal Writing.
The Redbook: A Manual on Legal Style, 4th ed. by Publication Date: 2018Guidance on all types of legal writing, covering punctuation, word choice, editing, and more. Part 4, Scholarly Writing, includes § 31 Student Research Papers and Law-Review Notes; § 32 Law-Review Articles; and § 33 Book Reviews.
Advice for Students
Allison Christians, Really Basic Rules for Writing Good Papers in Law School, 23 Green Bag 2d 181 (2020). [SSRN]
Patrick Eoghan Murray, Write on! A Guide to Getting on Law Review (2014) (unpublished paper posted on SSRN).
Andrew Yaphe, Taking Note of Notes: Student Legal Scholarship in Theory and Practice, 62 J. Legal Educ. 259 (2012).
[HeinOnline], [SSRN] Critiques books by Volokh and by Fajans & Falk above and empirically analyzes published notes.
Advice for Law Professors
Columbia Law School Careers in Law Teaching Program. Includes discussion of writing and publishing (methodology, topics, and length).
Christian C. Day, In Search of the Read Footnote: Techniques for Writing Legal Scholarship and Having It Published, 6 Legal Writing: J. Legal Writing Inst. 229 (2000) [HeinOnline]
Richard Delgado, How to Write a Law Review Article, 20 U.S.F. L. Rev. 445 (1986) [HeinOnline], [SSRN]
Laura P. Graham, Interval Training for Legal Writing Scholars, 23 Legal Writing 21 (2019) [HeinOnline] (short, encouraging essay analogizes writing an article to training as a runner).
Mary Kay Kane, Some Thoughts on Scholarship for Beginning Teachers, 37 J. Legal Educ. 14 (1987) [HeinOnline]
Nancy Levit, Scholarship Advice for New Law Professors in the Electronic Age, 16 Widener L.J. 947 (2007) [HeinOnline], [SSRN] (draft)
Jacqueline D. Lipton, Tenure Redux, 59 IDEA 181 (2018), [HeinOnline], [SSRN] (discusses writing style, subject matter, and journal placement for tenure work).
Hiroshi Motomura, Setting a "Scholarly Agenda," 10 St. Louis U. Pub. L. Rev. 175 (1991). [HeinOnline]
Nancy B. Rapoport, Help Your Provost Help You During Promotion and Tenure Decisions, 24 Green Bag 2d 83 (2020), [SSRN]. Tips for explaining to a provost how legal scholarship is different from other fields. Articles published in journals edited by students count!
Caprice L. Roberts, Unpopular Opinions on Legal Scholarship, 50 Loy. Chi. L. Rev. 365 (2018), [HeinOnline]
Pamela Samuelson, Good Legal Writing: Of Orwell and Window Panes, 46 U. Pitt. L. Rev. 149 (1984), [HeinOnline], [author's webpage]
Donald J. Weidner, A Dean’s Letter to New Law Faculty About Scholarship, 44 J. Legal Educ. 440 (1994). [HeinOnline]
Advice for Law Students or Law Professors
Hon. Ruggero J. Aldisert, Introduction [to Third Circuit Review], 30 Villanova L. Rev. 828 (1995), [HeinOnline], [SSRN]. Advice from appellate judge on how to critique appellate decisions.
Sean Burke, How to Write a Law Review Article, 99 J. Patent & Trademark Off. Soc'y 113 (2017). [HeinOnline] Advice from the journal's outgoing editor-in-chief.
Linda H. Edwards, A Writing Life, 61 Mercer L. Rev. 867 (2010). [HeinOnline]
Gerald Lebovits, Academic Legal Writing: How to Write and Publish, N.Y. St. B. Ass'n J., Jan. 2006, at 64. [HeinOnline]
Robert Luther III, Practical Tips for Placing and Publishing Your First Law Review Article, 50 U. Rich. L. Rev. Online 63 (2016).
- Modern Legal Scholarship: A Guide to Producing and Publishing Scholarly and Professional Writing by Publication Date: 2020Print
- What Makes a Great International Law Article [ASIL video]Panel of three editors of the American Journal of International Law. Many remarks are about writing generally, not just writing on international law.
Advice for Lawyers
Carolyn Elefant, Unleash Your Inner Scholar: Why Solos Should Write a Law Review Article, myshingle.com (Dec. 12, 2011)
Lt. Col. Keirsten Kennedy, Start Writing Already, Army Law., Sept./Oct. 2018, at 13, [HeinOnline]. Aimed at JAG lawyers, this short (3-page) article has solid advice for any writer.
Not Just for Legal Scholars
Stylish Academic Writing by Publication Date: 2012Ebook. Also available in print.
The author studied hundreds of articles from 10 academic disciplines (including law) and interviewed authors who were recognized by their peers as great writers. The result is a book that offers good advice, backed up by data and illustrated with wonderful examples.
Author's website links to author's TED-Ed video on "zombie nouns," as well as other material.
Publish, Don't Perish: The Scholar's Guide to Academic Writing and Publishing by Publication Date: 1992Moxley founded Writing Commons, "a free, comprehensive, peer-reviewed, award-winning Open Text for students and faculty in college-level courses that require writing and research." See the Writing Processes section for articles on a variety of topics, including developing effective writing habits, organizing, revising, and editing.
How to Increase Citations to Your Paper
Bonnie J. Shucha, Representing Law Faculty Scholarly Impact: Strategies for Improving Citation Metrics Accuracy and Promoting Scholarly Visibility, Legal Reference Servs. Q. (pub. online Oct. 7, 2021). [SSRN]
[T]this article suggests strategies to improve the accuracy of citation metrics for legal scholars and promote the visibility of their scholarship. This practical advice will benefit anyone interested in representing the scholarly impact of law faculty to its fullest effect, including legal scholars, law school administrators, and communications departments.
Rob Willey & Melanie Knapp, How to Increase Citations to Legal Scholarship, 18 Ohio St. Tech. L.J. 157 (2021). [HeinOnline], [SSRN]
The authors describe past citation studies and best practices in Search Engine Optimization (SEO). The authors find that factors beyond article quality likely impact scholarly citations. Drawing from the lessons in the citation patterns, article characteristics, and SEO best practices, the authors offer techniques to increase the article citation counts of articles published in U.S. law journals.