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Adapted from Academic Support Program, DePaul University
College of Law
copyright
1997, 1998 DePaul University College of Law
| Outlining is not about the finished
product, it's about the process; much like a law school exam is not about
the "answer", but really about how you derived at the answer. Thus, you
yourself must construct your own outline to achieve maximum reward.
If you struggle with putting an outline together throughout the semester,
you will begin to see the "big picture." This doesn’t mean you should avoid
other outlines; often other outlines may fill some gaps or spark further
ideas when
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| What do I need to have to begin an outline? | Three things:
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| When do I outline? | Ideally, you should outline each course, every week. I would
set aside Saturdays for outlining. Each week, I would add to the previous
week’s information.
Some students chose to outline a week or two before the exam. I CAUTION AGAINST THIS METHOD. It causes stress and results in "information overload." |
| How long should an outline be? | The length also varies. Compare to other outlines. CAUTION: An outline should NOT be a word-for-word regurgitation of your notes and case briefs. An outline is a summary of what you've learned; it is not, and should not be thicker than your casebook. Think of an outline as a completed jigsaw puzzle; it should represent your attempt at putting all the pieces of what you've rend find heard into one cohesive picture. |
| How do I put an outline together? | |
| Step one | Look at the table of contents of your asebook. What are the major categories listed? (I don't mean cases, I mean categories: negligence, strict liability). To extend our puzzle analogy, first look at the cover of the box to see what the completed picture should look like. |
| Step two | Write down all the categories listed in the table of contents. These will be the major sections of your outline. |
| Step three | Let's say you are outlining torts and the first section, according
to the table of contents
is "negligence". TORTS OUTLINE 1.NEGLIGENCE Now that you have the main category, look for some parts that you can use to further break down this large concept. Sometimes, the table of contents will give you these parts, sometimes you’ve talked about them in class. Look for the parts and further subdivide your outline. (To go back to the puzzle, if you have decided to work on the sky, you gather all the smaller pieces that are blue - somehow they all need to be fitted together so that you can construct the sky.) TORTS OUTLINE 1.NEGLIGENCE
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| Step Four | Flesh out each sub-part with a definition, explanation,
or, in some cases, further sub-parts.
Sometimes a sky is a good starting point for putting together a puzzle because of the color used in each piece - blue. But even the sky may have further parts: clouds, sun, stars etc. . . Similarly, you may think you've isolated a sub-issue in your outline, but you may need to make further divisions. For example, you may find in doing the torts outline that you can further define and divide duty: TORTS OUTLINE 1.NEGLIGENCE
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| Step five | Find relationships among terms.
Make sure that when you are constructing an outline, you stop and think about the relationship between and among terms. What is the relationship between duty and breach? should duty come before causation? Why? Unless you know how each piece of your legal puzzle is connected, your outline will not bring you maximum results. Think about where each piece of the puzzle goes and how and why it belongs here and not there. Be flexible. Sometimes, you might have to move a piece from one place in the puzzle to another. However, as any good puzzler knows, you should never force a piece in where it does not belong. If you can't figure it out, ask a neighbor, or better yet, a professor. |
| Step six | Now you can add cases and hypotheticals.
Notice that this is one of the final outlining steps. Cases and hypotheticals should be used to illustrate concepts - they are only a piece of the puzzle, not the puzzle itself. Ask yourself: what concept was this case meant to illustrate? TORTS OUTLINE 1.NEGLIGENCE
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| Step seven | Review and test. Having gone through your draft outline, make sure you aren't missing any pieces of the puzzle. Once you think your picture is complete, test it with a hypothetical. If the outline does not help you answer the hypothetical, you need to readjust your outline. |
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Law School Boot Camp |
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Passing the Bar Supplemental Coaching |
| February 2008 Bar Application Deadline November 30, 2007 |
| July 2008 Bar Application Deadline March 30, 2008 |
