Do you need to be good at english to do law? (1 Viewer)

[noctua]

As in do you have to be good at writing essays and so on?

 

[strawberrye]

What level of English are you looking at? I.e. a band 6 level?

 

[Crobat]

Yes but not in the HSC English way.

There's a more specific way to writing law essays and responses which you will learn in classes

 

[noctua]

Would a mid band 5 in English be good enough to cope with law?

 

[wannaspoon]

- You need to be up here
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- Highly literate individual
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- Average population
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- High School Teachers
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- You (I hope not, just shits and giggles, I'm sure you will cope, however, it is a steep learning curve)

I actually laugh at how some teachers mark assessments in a Law degree... You would usually get a average or slightly above average tick mark for: grammar, spelling and punctuation... However, throughout the actual assignment, they would not actually prompt you to why they gave that reasoning... The same goes with AGLC... my references were flawless, still don't know why my "compliance with AGLC" marks were pretty much average as well...

It is all subjective assessment which is an absolute crock of shit if I were to tell it to you straight...

 

[Crobat]

- You need to be up here
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|
|
- Highly literate individual
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|
|
- Average population
|
|
|
- High School Teachers
|
|
|
- You (I hope not, just shits and giggles, I'm sure you will cope, however, it is a steep learning curve)

I actually laugh at how some teachers mark assessments in a Law degree... You would usually get a average or slightly above average tick mark for: grammar, spelling and punctuation... However, throughout the actual assignment, they would not actually prompt you to why they gave that reasoning... The same goes with AGLC... my references were flawless, still don't know why my "compliance with AGLC" marks were pretty much average as well...

It is all subjective assessment which is an absolute crock of shit if I were to tell it to you straight...

this always blows me away

like i follow that guide right down to the fucking commas in the footnotes and positioning of the in text footnote after the punctuation shit and i'm still somehow wrong

like teacher do you even look at that guide

you could not have followed it more correctly

 

[Crobat]

Would a mid band 5 in English be good enough to cope with law?

law is more about how you interpret things and are able to write out what you've interpreted in plain language

how well you did in HSC english is not a good indicator of your ability to cope with it

 

[Crobat]

.

 

[photastic]

law is more about how you interpret things and are able to write out what you've interpreted in plain language

how well you did in HSC english is not a good indicator of your ability to cope with it

I think this would apply to every uni course. HSC is not a good indicator for university (some HD student said today)

 

[Crobat]

I think this would apply to every uni course. HSC is not a good indicator for university (some HD student said today)

is correct although I think 3u/4u maths is somewhat transferable to engineering courses from what i'm hearing (at least in first year) so maybe that's an exception

and probably some sciences too

 

[Crobat]

.

 

[Amundies]

Them full stops hahaha

 

[RishBonjour99]

No you don't. That is probably the biggest misconception which my contracts lecturer clarified on the first day. He said that students who were good in maths or sciences generally performed well (given they put in the effort). I got 89 in HSC english and most recently got a HD in Public Law which around 5-10 other students got. Clearly I wasn't exceptional in "English".

You are not regurgitating anything - which is HSC english for the majority of students. If you do, you are setting yourself up for a pass or credit at best. This is because the majority of law school exams at top end law schools are problem based. You will be given a scenario with often very little direction and it is up to you (after 15 mins of wtf is this), to identify the legal issues and usually give advice to all or some of the parties involved.

There are also essay questions and again i did quite well in those because HSC English does not teach you to get straight to the point - which is what you should be doing.

Tl; dr : no, HSC English is irrelevant

 

[Crobat]

Them full stops hahaha

They were double posts I tried to delete but for some reason it wasn't letting me

 

[JasonG123]

If you mean english as in HSC English, then no. HSC English is a really terrible preparation for writing in university, it would honestly be better if you forgot everything you learned in it.

If you mean english as in writing skills, then it is important. However, the ability to think and reason logically is more important, especially for subjects like Contracts. For a lot of subjects, essays won't even be part of the course (contracts, torts), however for other subjects they will be unavoidable (criminal law).

 

[PierreThomas]

To quote Sydney University: "It is recommended that you take the best level HSC English course you feel you can manage."
http://sydney.edu.au/law/fstudent/undergrad/faq.shtml

 

[sweetdaisy]

I guess to a certain extent. If it is a certain area you are weak in, for example Grammar then you can brush up your skills. I would say that a student achieving a Band 5-6 in Advanced English is sufficient. Remember that HSC is not a great indicator of your uni's performance.

But you definitely need the ability to absorb great amounts of info and comprehend them because there are massive chunks of text and sometimes, they are so circumlocuting that it drives me insane. LOL

 

[rafall]

So I am doing HSC standard course and band 6 level, would that be fine? or it would be hard to study law at this level?

 

[jaydizzlegear]

HSC English proficiency has very little weight on law proficiency
I got 83 in advanced english, and I am a D/HD law student

 

[Intrinsic]

So I am doing HSC standard course and band 6 level, would that be fine? or it would be hard to study law at this level?

I did standard english as well. Learn to understand rather than mindlessly memorising information. Writing well in an essay on poems and plays won't be indicative of your ability to excel in Law.