Procrastination – the enemy of students

I’ve recently been asked how can students motivate themselves in order to revise for exams. Revision isn’t like changing a habit, which requires reprogramming yourself to form a habit and from that habit (and its positive results) comes the motivation. So I don’t think much of the advice which applies to habit forming (exercising more, eating or drinking less) applies. I wonder whether with revision we have to look at the problem from the other side – rather than look at how to motivate students, to look at what prevents students from working. I think it is that old enemy of students,  procrastination, which is the key to the conundrum.

To combat procrastination, it will help to recognise the causes of procrastination. There are several. You need to think about yourself to work out which of these causes apply to you. This will take a certain level of honest self-evaluation. Be prepared to be honest with yourself.

LIES AND DAMNED LIES – THE PROCRASTINATION MYTHS

We lie to ourselves more often than we like to admit. In fact, I’m procrastinating right now, writing this rather than doing my drafting formal feedback marking. This task is certainly going to be useful to students. But it isn’t essential to me to do it and it isn’t urgent. I’ve been telling myself writing this won’t take me longer than about an hour. So I have already fallen victim to a number of the great procrastination lies. Let’s have a look at what they are.

“I’m not yet ready to revise, because….” – this is the lie you tell yourself in many forms. I can’t revise because classes haven’t finished. I can’t start because study leave hasn’t started. I can’t start because I haven’t made all my notes. I can’t start because I have other work to do. Revision does not have to be an “all day” task. Half an hour here, an hour there, in between other tasks is fine. You don’t need to be able to block out whole weeks to start the revision process. On the bus or train on the way to Uni is a good start.

“I’m not in the right mood/I’m not in the revision zone” – by the time you feel the sense of panic which will force you to your desk, the chances are it will be too late. 

“I have lots of time to do my task” – this is the lie you tell yourself that the exams are months away so there is no need to start your revision. 

“I work better under pressure” – you honestly don’t. What happens when you feel under pressure is that you panic. You fear the consequences of doing nothing (not handing in your essay, not passing your exam) and that suddenly shakes you out of your lethargy. But you generally are not working as effectively or with the concentration or focus you need. You are solely working because of your fear. 

“I’m just too busy to start revising now” – are you keeping yourself busy with unimportant tasks as a means of avoiding revising? Be honest…. 

FEAR AND LOATHING – WHAT ARE YOU AFRAID OF?

There are many fears which cause procrastination. Some of them will surprise you….

Fear of failure.

Fear of success.

Fear of what others will think of you.

Fear of too large a task.

Fear of too difficult a task.

Fear of not knowing how to begin.

Fear of the blank page.

Fear of having to make decisions. 

These fears are unlikely to be well founded or rational. Challenge them.

What are you afraid of and is it actually worse than not passing your exam/s?

WE SHALL OVERCOME – BEATING PROCRASTINATION

Break the fear of the blank page by getting something on that page. Even if it is just a heading. Or a couple of bullet points. If I have a letter or email I am dreading writing, I start with the heading and the ending. That way the top and tail are written. Then I can see some of it is already on the page. The task

feels more manageable and I feel better about tackling the rest.

Start with something easy. We like immediate rewards. That is why smartphone games and social media are so addictive. It is the instant gratification of getting a “like” or moving up to the next level which releases dopamine, the pleasure chemical. If you complete a small task, you will feel that little buzz which can help you keep going.

Try to inject fun into the process. Make up games or fun ways to learn. The more pleasure you feel, the more you will want to do. 

Split up a subject into small topics. Don’t think of the subject as a huge monolith. This will stop you feeling overwhelmed. It will also make the next step easier. 

Incentivise yourself with rewards. Whenever you complete dealing with a topic, give yourself a treat (WhatApp call to friends/family, a walk, a game, time on social media, a snack…). 

Avoid distractions. Whatever is your pet distraction, admit to it and do what you can to minimise its effect on you.

Think about using the Pomodoro technique to increase your focus and help you avoid distractions. See this previous blog post for more details: http://snigsclassroom.blogspot.com/2016/01/getting-through-bptc-with-pomodoro.html

Think about using reminders – via a diary/online scheduler. Set yourself mini-deadlines – by which you will have covered X topics for the first time, etc. Set them up so you don’t have to remember them and they appear either as emails or reminders on your phone or computer.

If you need deadlines to push you, then create the deadlines for yourself and tell yourself you mean them. 

I hope that this will help you overcome your procrastination. 

And now, back to that drafting marking!

Law Essay 101

Law Essay 101: the basics of how to write a law essay

If you’re new to studying law, you will find yourself writing essays right from the start of the course. The reading will already be daunting, and if you don’t understand how law is different from other subjects at university, you might be feeling some fear at this point. But don’t worry, take a deep breath and work at your essay in a systematic way. I hope this blog post will help. 

Look carefully at your essay question. Make sure you understand it before you start reading, notetaking and researching. 

Don’t ever do any reading without a clear purpose. WHY are you reading whichever text is in front of you? What are you looking for? Always take notes when reading. If you read something without taking notes intending to come back to the reading to take notes later, you might find you run out of time. 

Think about what you consider the answer to the question is likely to be. This will help you with your introduction. If you find writing the introduction difficult, you can always do this last. Or do your best right now and revise it later. 

Your introduction should introduce the area of law briefly, define the question and comment briefly on what you will be discussing and concluding. Some people say that you set out your “thesis” – in other words, the argument you will be making – YOUR answer to the question. This helps the reader and the marker know what to expect from your work.

The body of the essay will have to deal with a number of issues and arguments. Where you can, try to make these “flow” so that connected ideas are put next to each other. Although expect there to be some issues which aren’t going to be part of that flow – that’s fine. You are aiming to be thorough, so don’t leave out important issues just because you think the flow of your essay is being interrupted. 

You need to consider what the competing views and competing arguments are. You cannot be one sided. You will need to write about arguments and counter-arguments. Give argument and counter argument separate paragraphs. 

When you are thinking about arguments and counter arguments – try to identify what the debates are and who is initiating them – for example, differing judge’s opinions, different legal academics/commentators/writers with conflicting views, competing interests, political debates, law commission reviews of the law, campaign and pressure groups. In criminal law there is a clash between people who represent defendants (those who are accused of crimes who should be treated as innocent until proven guilty) and those who represent victims of crimes. 

You may need to show the context of the legal issue; how the law in the area developed and changed (which can be linked to historical events, changes of attitudes, social reform, protest and campaigning); whether there are policy considerations at work. Public policy considerations can be moral, practical or political – you need to describe them and evaluate them – whilst considering their influence on the law. 

Generally, don’t write about different themes or topics in the same paragraph, it makes your written work confusing to read and understand. It can also cause you to lose your thread, as you try to grapple with two ideas at the same time. 

Remember that you need to “prove” your arguments with the “evidence” – your readings from case law, statute, and legal commentators. You can’t just say what you think without justifying it. 

When you write about cases, remember that it is the principle of law in the case which is most important. The reasons for the decision (the rule of law on which the decision is based) is the most important thing – it is called the Ratio Decidendi. The Obiter Dicta (a judge's expression of opinion uttered in court or in a written judgement, but not essential to the decision and therefore not legally binding as a precedent) are a good source of counter arguments in a law essay, but because they aren’t legally binding precedents, are not as weighty. Dissenting judgments are also good sources of counter arguments. Whilst the facts can be interesting and partly relevant, you don’t say too much about the facts – the principles of law are key.

Try to be persuasive in your writing. You should try and write formally. No contractions, don’t write sentences that begin “I think”. 

Bring everything together in your conclusion. Make sure the conclusion is consistent with the introduction. 

Don't forget to proofread before you hand in. Don't rely solely on the spell checker. I wrote an essay about recklessness once (part of criminal law). There is a famous case called Chief Constable of Avon and Somerset Constabulary v Shimmen (1986) 84 Cr App R 7 where someone tries to show off their Kung Fu skills. He thinks he can demonstrate a flying kick, stopping short before disaster (hitting a shop front). I wrote about him smashing a plate glass “widow” because the spell check couldn’t tell the difference between a window and widow; it doesn’t know or understand context, all it does is look for correctly spelled words in the dictionary!

The most important way in which you can avoid getting in trouble with plagiarism is to ensure anything which is taken from a source you have read is put in quotation marks. This means that while you are making your notes for your essay, you are making sure you keep the details of what your source is. Whilst you are making your notes for your essay, you might want to use a different font or colour for your own ideas, to keep them separate.

Here is a definition of plagiarism: https://www.plagiarism.org/article/what-is-plagiarism

As you can see, taking notes where it is no longer clear what comes from your reading and what comes from your own ideas can fall into plagiarism. That's why starting with good notes for your essay is important.

When you are reading, you will need to note down certain information.

For cases:

The full case name

The citation

The name of the judge

If using quotes – the paragraph number of the judgement

For statute:

The full name of the statute and the year

The section number

The wording of the provision

For books:

The name of the author(s)/organisation

Full title

Year published

Edition, if relevant

Name of the publisher

For electronic materials, the URL (website address) for the webpage or DOI (Digital Object Identifier) and the date it was accessed

The system used in law for referencing is called OSCOLA. It means that you use reference numbers in superscript with footnotes for your sources. You will need to learn how to insert references using your word processing software. 

Here is an example of what the referencing looks like: https://www.lawteacher.net/free-law-essays/english-legal-system/criticisms-of-english-legal-system.php

 

For how you write the references, depending on your source, here is a quick guide to OSCOLA referencing: https://www.law.ox.ac.uk/sites/files/oxlaw/oscola_4th_edn_hart_2012quickreferenceguide.pdf

 

Good luck with your law essays!