'The Reasonable Zone of Right Answers': Analytical Feedback on Student Writing

Abstract

This article develops the theory behind and practice of written analytical feedback on student writing for law practice. After Section I, which provides an introduction, Section II discusses the theory. It begins by addressing the function of legal writing classes in teaching students how to produce the kind of accurate and precise analysis that is the necessary foundation for documents useful in law practice. The section then goes on to discuss how this focus on analysis requires legal writing teachers to play a dual role—that of a legal educator as well as reader in law practice—in providing written critique of their students’ draft documents. Section III concludes by providing examples of how this theory should play out in the practice of giving such written comments. This section describes a specific legal problem that is the basis for examples that follow, including student attempts at communicating analysis, teacher feedback on those attempts, and commentary on why the feedback is pedagogically successful.