Writing Academic Papers for Law School

The Substantial Writing requirement is a paper written in conjunction with a law school class or a law review article. It is not a reflection, summary, or brief. The paper must be an original criticism, analysis, synthesis or history of law or a law-related topic. It must not be a paraphrase or summary of someone else's work. It must advance and defend one or more central theses. 

Meeting this requirement won't be a simple matter of researching and then writing and then being done. Research will be an essential, repeated step all throughout the process. You will have to research to choose a topic then research to create a thesis and then research to get the material for writing the body of your paper.

More information regarding the logistics of the Substantial Writing requirement at BYU Law can be found here: https://law.byu.edu/policies-and-procedures/curriculum/#substantial-writing-requirement.