Substantial Writing Requirements

Option A
Option B
How do I fulfill my writing requirement to graduate?
How do I know if I fulfilled my writing requirement?
Courses Offering Substantial Writing
Registration Deadlines

For All Substantial Writing Requirements:

Students are required to complete either one Option A paper or two Option B papers.
Regardless of the type of project involved, students are expected to submit original, non-duplicative work for each and every course. When in doubt about the proper use of a citation or quotation, discuss the issue with the instructor. The reuse of work you did for another class for law school credit without approval is a serious offense that may merit severe discipline. (See Procedures for Offenses Requiring Formal Discipline in the Student Handbook for a definition of plagiarism).
Any writings, whether Option A or Option B, must be faculty-supervised in order to qualify for the writing requirement.
PLEASE NOTE: Substantial Writing credit may not be earned for work a student does for pay.

Option A

IT IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY to register for the appropriate credits to satisfy the Option A requirement. A limited number of seminars may restrict the number of students that may write a substantial paper in a seminar (i.e., not all students that win a seat in a seminar will be able to satisfy Option A. Please check course descriptions. A professor may require permission to register for the writing credit of their seminar. Therefore, you should take this into account.).
If you will satisfy the Option A in a seminar or course (as opposed to Directed Research), once you have received faculty approval, you must register through COURSES during the add/drop period for the additional Writing Credit associated with the seminar/course by the stated deadline. After COURSES closes for add/drop registration, you must submit an add/drop form to the Office of Academic Services by the stated deadline. No retroactive registration is permitted.

Option A is described as follows:

The writing requirement: In order to graduate, a student must produce an original analytic paper of substantial length (ordinarily at least 10,000 words in length and undergoes a comment and draft process) under the supervision of a faculty member, who may augment these requirements.
The character of the paper: The paper must be a sustained piece of writing and not purely descriptive. It should be thorough, well-written, properly documented, and anticipate and address opposing arguments.
The form of the paper: The paper may be a traditional journal note; the author’s empirical research with analysis; a proposal for law reform with defense and commentary; a memorandum of law or a brief addressing a substantial legal issue: or an equivalent project showing original thought and analysis.
The scope of faculty oversight: Students should present an outline of their paper to the supervising faculty member for approval before doing substantial work. After approval, the student must prepare a first draft of the paper and, after faculty review, and discussion, the student must prepare a rewritten second draft that is responsive to the instructor’s criticism and acceptable to him or her.
The time for completion of the paper: A student should have completed his or her first draft no later than January of the student’s final semester to ensure adequate time before graduation for the supervising faculty member to critique the paper, the student to rewrite the paper, and the faculty member to review the second draft and determine whether to approve it or request further work. Seminars with writing credits will satisfy the Option A requirement automatically since an Option A paper is required in order to earn the additional writing credit.

A student may satisfy the Option A requirement under the supervision of a faculty member either through a two-credit Directed Research or as part of a seminar or other classroom activity. In the case of a seminar with an optional one credit writing component, students who write such a paper can earn an additional credit for the seminar by registering for the writing credit portion in addition to the seminar itself. For example, if you are registered for Tax Policy Seminar (LAW-LW.12027) for 2 credits, you should register for Tax Policy Seminar: Writing Credit (LAW-LW.11502) for the additional credit. You may add the Option A Writing Credit on COURSES during the add/drop period, or by submitting an add request via the Law Registrar’s Service Desk until the deadline posted in the registration calendar. Option A Writing Credit courses are listed in the Schedules of Classes. For lecture courses, satisfaction of the course requirements through completion of the Substantial Writing/Option A paper will be awarded the number of credits that the course normally carries.

Option B

Students may satisfy the writing requirement by completing work in two different classes (“Option B”) that can take a variety of forms, including for example, a brief, motion, contract or transactional document, policy analysis, or a series of short papers. Accordingly, it is difficult to set an across-the-board measure for the writing like a specific number of pages or a word count. As a general matter, and subject to whatever specialized requirements are set by the teacher of the course or Directed Research, Option B writing should normally involve a total of 5,000 words of writing, which corresponds to roughly 15 double-spaced pages in print (which might be spread across several different short documents), exclusive of footnotes. If projects are co-written, an individual student must have contributed at least 15 pages or 5,000 words.
Writing done in a clinic or externship may also qualify for Option B (including, for example, a series of pleadings). Please note that per ABA Interpretation 303-1, students may not use one course to satisfy more than one requirement; clinics and externships by default count towards the experiential learning requirement.

Find out more about Student Writing.

How do I fulfill my writing requirement to graduate?

Choose one of the options listed below:

1.) One Option A Paper which can be fulfilled by choosing one of the following

a) Registered for a Writing Credit with a seminar and are working with a professor on an Option A paper (i.e.: Creation of the Constitution Seminar and Creation of the Constitution: Writing Credit)

b) Registered for 2-credit Option A Directed Research or submitted a 1,000 word proposal to the Office of Academic Services applying for and registering for an Option A Directed Research. See our Directed Research website for more information.

2.) Two Option B Papers which can be fulfilled by using one or more of the following

a.) Registered for course that offers Option B

To know if the course offers Option B, check the course description. A course description that says yes, offers Option B to all students in the course. No additional registration is needed.

A course description that says By Permission of Instructor only, means that the professor must certify to Academic Services that you have earned Option B in the course.

To apply for this, submit a Law Registrar’s Service Desk ticket along with professor permission.

b) Registered for a Directed Research Option B or submitted a 1,000 word proposal to the Office of Academic Services applying for and registering for an Option B Directed Research. One paper will be one of the two Option B required papers. See our Directed Research website for more information.

c) Request that a simulation or clinic count toward an Option B if you have already completed your experiential learning requirement. To apply for this, submit a Law Registrar's Service Desk ticket along with professor permission.

If a student has completed their writing requirement either through one Option A paper or two Option B papers, it is not necessary to submit additional classes to count toward the writing graduation requirement. Please review the How do I know if I fulfilled my writing requirement? to determine if the writing requirement has been completed for graduation. If there are any questions, please submit a service desk ticket.

How do I know if I fulfilled my writing requirement?

Check your degree progress report in Albert and it will reflect courses that will count toward your writing requirement. If you think a course you took should be counting as a writing requirement and isn’t, contact the Office of Academic Services by submitting a Law Registrar’s Service Desk ticket.

Courses Offering Substantial Writing

Registration Deadline

September 30 for Fall 2024
February 3 for Spring 2025

You may add the Writing Credit on COURSES during the fall and spring daily cycles or in person at the Office of Academic Services with an add/drop form.

Exception: If there are a limited number of students who can add the writing credit (see course description), students should bid on the writing credit and the seminar/course at the same time.

Writing Credit courses are listed in the Schedules of Classes.