Write-On Competition

Thank you for your interest in becoming a member of the Law Review. The Write-On Competition for the 2009-2010 academic year will begin on Wednesday, April 29, 2009. The application packet will be available for purchase at Seattle University Reprographic Services, located in the Student Center Pavilion. All submissions are due by 5 p.m. on Friday, June 5, 2009. The application materials will be collected in the Student Publications Office on the third floor of Sullivan Hall. Notification of acceptance to the Law Review will be made during the weekend prior to the start of the fall semester.

Submission Procedure

A Law Review staff member will be in the Student Publications Office from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. to accept applications on Thursday, June 4, and Friday, June 5. Please feel free to hand-deliver your application to the office on those days.

If you need to submit your application on a different day or time prior to the June 5 deadline, please bring your application to the Copy and Mail Room, located around the corner from the Dean's Office Reception area. You may request that your application be placed in the Law Review mailbox.

Please contact the Managing Editor if you have any questions or concerns. Good luck!

Frequently Asked Questions

In the fifth paragraph of the statement of facts it says that because John was in court "David was unable to perform any pre-trial witness interviews." Does the defendant conduct these interviews or does counsel?

Sorry for the confusion. This just means, John was unable to perform the interviews on David's behalf.

It appears that the Young case uses a public domain format that uses the paragraph number as a pincite. However, the instructions state that some of the cases have been edited down and we should just cite to the previous page. For purposes of the Young case, should we assume that each paragraph is the original paragraph from the opinion and just count those?

The Young case does have page numbers. They are in the case in the same format as any other case. If the case has been edited, cite to whatever the previous page number is.

Some of the Law Review articles in the packet quote to or cite to other cases, but the citation to that case is missing. Are we allowed to find that case to find the correct citation or should we leave out the volume/reporter info for the cited case?

No. You may not do any outside research. There are no case citations in the Law Review articles because they have been omitted to make the length of the packet shorter. If you cannot provide a full parenthetical citation just cite to the source we gave you. Remember, this is a closed-universe problem so rely solely on what has been given to you.

Under "Criteria for Selection" number 5 (page 4 of the packet) it states, "in writing your response, you do not need to cite to the facts in the problem." Does that mean that we don't have to include the facts of the problem but it is okay if we do, or that we cannot add a facts section from the problem in the opinion or we will be marked down for that?

You may choose to include a separate fact section but you do not have to. You are strictly limited to 10 pages so you may want to exclude a separate fact section for brevity, however, this decision is entirely up to you. Regardless, you may need to refer to the fact pattern throughout your analysis. You do not need to cite to the facts. The facts are presumed to be correct and not disputed so no reference is necessary.

I am unfamiliar with the Bluebook White Pages. Where can we find a copy?

The white pages of the bluebook just refers to the section with white pages in the regular bluebook. In Legal Writing I, you would have primarily utilized the blue pages. For the writing competition, you are to look first to the blue pages and supplement with information from the white pages when necessary. There is no separate book

Regarding the citation of sources, it appears that we are limited to citing the 14 sources on page 10. However, if we want to cite a case within a law review article, should we cite the article or the case? For example, if one of the listed law review articles cites to case ABC but case ABC is not one of the 14 listed sources, would that disqualify us?

Only cite the sources that have been provided to you. This is limited to the 14 in the table of sources. In your citation, you can indicate that you are quoting or citing another source. Refer to the bluebook for proper format on this. In other words, you can include the other source if you cite the source we provide you and then indicate that the source we have provided you is citing or quoting another outside source.

What is the Texas Law Review Manual? Do I need it? If I cannot find the 10th edition can I use a previous edition?

The Texas Law Review Manual is a guidebook about usage and style that is helpful for writing. It is not necessary or required, however, you may find it helpful for the technical aspect of your writing. It does not matter which edition you use.

I was looking at the LR application and the last sentence on page 32 continues onto page 33 but does not seem to flow. Further, the page numbers above the page numbers you have added indicate a jump from page 2 to page 4. I am just wondering if that is how the application is supposed to be?

Most of the documents in the packet have been edited to make it shorter. The page you are referring to was cut out, and the lack of transition was just an oversight. Disregard the missing page and just go ahead and rely on what has been provided in the packet.