Legal Article Writing

How to write a law article or in fact any article, well it certainly cannot be taught. As article writing is just like a novelist writing stories or on the net world one calls it a blog. Legal articles is not but a blog related to any legal topics. How to write or how not to write is something that one cannot be taught, it comes from within, the ideas, the topic one relates to.Thought, its really difficult to teach any blogger how to write an article but there can be some guidelines which a beginner can follow to write a law article or blog.

The most important point to ponder before you even think of writing a legal article or blog is how log should the artile be..?? well a legal article should not be too lenghty to kill the interest of reader. Article between 1500 to 2000 words can always hit a sweet spot. This excludes conclusion of the article.

However, legal article writting is not just a simple story writing, for a qulity legal article it need in depth knowledge of the article subject and quite a bit of research on the subject before the words start flowing in an artiels. Legal article needs to be correct; true and contain lots of research work. Area of interest and ideas  in mind are like two sides of a coin for legal article writing, with writing skills. A quality article writing can only be possible if  the writer wel versed with the subject matter, else the article could be just a words filling space and also irrelevant.

Any  law student or even a lawyer engaged in article writing needs to be perfect in the art of writing legal article and are tested for 

• Interpretation skill
• Writing skill

01. Select Topic / Subject First and the foremost is pick the topic / subject in which you have a sufficient knowledge, more the merrier. One should even be good in researching more information which can be framed and used for the article-- relevant to the topic / subject.

02. Pick up a Headline or the Title of the article: The Headline should be catchy and germane. Catchy does not mean you get carried away but puttin extra information. Create curiosity in the crisp article heading that keeps a reader interested. So, just pic a heading or a titile of the article that simply makes sense for the article. Bit of brainstorming can always help to phrase a perfect Title / Heading for your legal article.

03. Starting Para: Once done with heading its time to start. Yes, the start is most important if you want your reader to stick on your artile. The first paragraph, determines the quality of your article and keepm your reader curious to gor to subsequents paragraph and not bounce off. So make a impressive start, first impression can be the last impression.

Starting an article with bulleted poinjts always have the impact as the reader knows the content of the complete article just in a jist of bullets. Highlighting 5 or 6 bullet point for the complete article create a positive impact on the articles.

04. Focused - avoid deviating from the prime subject that was picked for the article. Do keep in mind this article is not to be like a class room lecture or sound like a court room. but a real analysis subject focused.It's not a personal profile but a an article with lots research work. The article being composed should sound very professional. Having said this, legal article writing should be tight and well-edited with legal tone. 

05. Short with emphasis : Keeping it short is going to attract more readers, also the article must have short sentences and more paragraph and points as it is easier for the reader to read it. The article must either ask a question, makes a statement or give a solution.The writer must be well-read about the topic he is dealing with in the article.

06. Checklist : For any article write beat article with analysis ( Legal, Finance , Stock Market, etc) to any story writing ( travel blogs, personal stories,etc) its always better to have a checklist. before sending the draft because article must be in flow and in one format, one thing followed by the other. It must not be jumbled up therefore the writer must keep in mind that first he should state the facts, followed by issue involved, then there must be rule application (which areas of law one is using), then analysis and lastly conclusion.

07. Use of legal jargon- One needs to know its audience then select its vocabulary. If a person is writing to address common man, he should try to avoid complicated terms, and if usage is necessary same should be explained in layman’s language. If one is writing for some competition, then he should use his legal jargon but it should not appear that one is trying to flaunt.

08. The Proof- In order to prove one point, the article can contain survey or graph, this give more emphasis as well as add to the value of the article. For example- “Should Section 377 be legalised?” These are tiny things but have great importance, sometimes one could add image as it becomes eye-catchy but it must be relevant. Too many images are just big NO but one or two would not harm at all.

09. Abstract- If a person is writing an article which is little lengthy then it must have an abstract. Abstract must be of one to three paragraphs and must convey as to the issues one is dealing with in the article.

10. Use of Case Laws- Article on any of the legal topic its always better to support with some examples of case laws. providing a case law is always like adding extra weight to article. This does not mean make it to heavy. Use different case law, maybe tow or three and not more. Case law helps a reader to understand the situation and also it gives the writer leverage over other writers. Use case law only if needed and don't force it into a article just for the sake of it, it must be relevant. Citation of the cases is equally important, there are several form of citation but but journal citation is most important.

11. Conclusion- There must be a conclusion in the article which should be straight forward. It must summarise the whole article and should provide with an alternative or should make a statement and also give the reason for the same to justify your statement.

Besides these basics thing, another important thing is research work. One should start their research work firstly by going to library, it can be a college library or public library where one can find books related to the issue involved. Then the writer should shift to search engine. Database must be searched and used properly. The research must shift from general to specific.