The write-on will be available at 9am on May 14, 2009.
The write-on will be due at 9am on May 18, 2009.
The write-on will be available for transfer students at 9am on August 13, 2009.
The write-on will be due for transfer students at 9am on August 17, 2009.
No EXCEPTIONS to these dates and times will be made.
An informational meeting about the write-on will be held on Thursday April 16 at both 12:15 and 5:00. Please look for law school announcements for further details.
Who Should Participate?
All rising 2Ls and 3Ls are eligible to participate.
Anyone interested in SMU Law Review, International Law Review or Science and Technology Law Review Journal should participate.
Offers from all three law reviews will be made on the same day soon after grades and class percentiles are released to them (tentatively July 14).
Dropping it off in person at Sharon Johnson’s office, room 5 of Storey Hall
Out-of-town:
Emailing it to Sharon Johnson at sharonj@smu.edu. We must receive it by 9am. We will not look at the time it was sent; or
Overnighting it to Sharon Johnson; it must be marked for Monday AM delivery
Competition Message Board
Please check the Competition Message Board throughout the weekend of the Write-On Competition to see information that may come up after the competition begins.
Honor Code Rules
Entrants are strictly prohibited from seeking or receiving any outside assistance with the write-on competition. This includes but is not limited to:
Current law journal members
Faculty members
Other write-on entrants
Attorneys
Other law students
Work you have done in the past
Memo: sources not included in the closed memo
Citations: anything other than the Blue Book and Green Book.
You will be required to sign an honor pledge stating that you neither gave nor received any assistance in the write-on competition.
Entrants who do not sign the pledge will be disqualified from the competition.
Entrants who do receive outside assistance in any form will be disqualified from the competition.
Structure
Three parts:
(1) Article editing
You will be given about 6 pages of excerpts from real articles. You will edit both the text and the citations.
You CANNOT use the "track changes" feature in Word to edit on your computer. You CAN hand write changes on the paper using red pen and then scan the completed version into your computer.
Alternatively, you can make your edits directly to the Word document by making the necessary changes in red font and highlighting the entire edited word, phrase, or punctuation mark. See below for an example. YOU CANNOT USE THE “TRACK CHANGES” FEATURE IN MICROSOFT WORD TO MAKE YOUR EDITS.
Example of proper electronic edit:
Sentence in article: "I like the colur red."
Edited sentence: "I like the color red."
If you add something that should be there (such as a comma), then use the above red font/highlight combination to denote the addition.
If you delete something that shouldn’t be there (such as a comma) the highlight function will not permit you to highlight blank spaces. Instead use the underscore key_ to indicate when you have deleted something such as comma or space. Highlight the underscore and change its color to red.
Sentence in article: "I like, the color red."
Edited sentence: "I like_the color red."
If you need to insert a space, please use the # sign to indicate that you did so. Highlight the # and change its color to red.
Sentence in article: "He wentout ."
Edited sentence: "He went #out."
Please don’t stress over how you are formatting this red font/highlight combination. Above all, make sure your edits are accurate, clear, and well-marked.
(2) Citation list
You will write a full citation for each source included in the closed memo, regardless of whether or not you plan on using the source in your memo.
(3) Closed memo
You will write a 6 page memo using only the sources included in the packet.
You do not need to use all of the sources provided.
Format: 8.5 x 11 inch paper, 1 inch margins, double spaced, 12 point Times New Roman font.
Footnotes must be used and should be single spaced, 12 point Times New Roman font.
Information Sheet
There will be an information sheet for personal information in the packet.
DO NOT include your name on anything other than the personal information sheet.
Do not include your SMU ID number; the law review will assign you a unique number.
You must include a valid telephone number in order to receive/accept offers from the three journals.
Questions
Direct all questions to Christine Shea Wakeman at cshea@smu.edu.
SymposiA 
