Hello, Ladies,
I’m off today because I promised to help a friend improve her writing for the bar exam. Super smart girl, will make an excellent lawyer, but she’s still struggling with pulling those points. Back tomorrow and all week with new content.
Enjoy the sunshine! I’ll have my nose in a book.
xoxo, Belle
that’s super nice of you – good luck to her!
I want to point out how condescending you sound in this post. I think you were trying to show how saintly or brilliant you are for helping a friend, but you managed to make yourself look like an ass. There is no reason to mention that your friend is struggling. I would feel awful if I were your friend and read that.
I love the concept of your blog and often love your content, but your consistent need to knock people down leaves a horrible taste in my mouth. Between your post on your brother’s wedding and this, I have a rather terrible opinion of you.
Wow. Belle posts every day, and when she doesn’t she tells us why. As a longtime reader (and, to be honest, a nosy person) I appreciate this.
As for how the friend would feel, Belle said she is a super smart girl, will make an excellent lawyer, and is having trouble with a specific skill that has no bearing on the first two things. I’m taking the bar exam next week and would be honored if someone said that about me.
Coming from two bar exam takers who could use a friend’s help, this was not condescending at all.
P.S. Belle, if you have any tips send them my way.
One of my mentors was a bar examiner, and she was nice enough to look at about a dozen of my practice essays for me. She really emphasized strong organization, descriptive headers for sections that summarize your argument in a quick snapshot, and strong, precise intros and conclusions. Her whole point is that examiners are reading at a speed one step above skimming so you have to make clear you hit the high points. She totally changed the way I wrote essays and thought about the bar exam.
….Aren’t you taking the February bar? Why in the world are you spending time writing a dozen+ practice essays right now?
My school offered a bar prep course as a final semester class. I took it. Thus, the essays.
First, I was trying to sound saintly. Just said why there would be no posts. Second, my friend reads here every day. Third, there are lots of law students who are going to be wonderful lawyers who aren’t good at school. And I could have made the point differently, but I was trying to illustrate that people who “fail the bar” or struggle on the bar get a bad name, when most of them are good lawyers who aren’t good at taking a test the examiner’s way.
If you read more into it, or saw some need to knock her down, then you added that where there wasn’t any.
Abra didn’t insult me. My irac is a trash fire that needs more than barbri. Abs is a good tutor and good friend and I’m not offended AT ALL. Don’t be butt hurt and rip her up pretending to defend me or speak for me when it’s not like we know each other.
It is my favorite when Belle’s friends and family chime in to tell the posters of nasty comments to pipe down.
Hope the study session was productive. Good luck on your exam, Belle’s friend.