I have an Bachelor’s of Arts in English. I wonderful degree that everyone said would be very useful in law school. It is actually useful for knowing basic sentence structure, knowing basic words, and knowing basic punctuation. When a professor returned my first writing assignment in a class, I. WAS. DEVASTATED. It was torn apart. There were so many marks on it I could barely see through them. I was embarrassed to have a degree in English. See 1Ls go through this and some do not, but it’s a good lesson if you do go through this. You see, I could have all the punctuation right, the ideas correct, and the format down, but without the proper word choice, my papers would never be good enough. And that’s what this week’s theme is: choosing the right words.

After the mess in the last chapter., Mr. Weasley and the children arrive back at the Burrow. Mr. Wealsey is soon off to the Ministry to do damage control. Rita Skeeter, the wizarding world’s infamous tall-tale telling gossip reporter, wrote an article about something Mr. Wealsey said coming out of the forest the night of the Death Eater incident. People are enraged at his comment of “nobody has been hurt” when in fact there were rumors several bodies were removed from the forest. Having spoke too soon, the Ministry is now overrun with howlers from angry, scared wizards.

Words can make or break a career, a friendship, a relationship…anything! In law school, we work very hard to pick and choose our words carefully. Every document we write, every email we craft, every meeting we hold is practiced, edited, read over carefully, edited again and then sent or held. There is very little room for error.

It’s not easy to write amazing briefs or contracts. However, it is easy to feel behind in your education when it comes to word choice and economy. Even with an english degree I still constantly feel demoralized when receiving edited or graded papers back. The dilemma each time becomes either becoming irate and wanting to give up or attacking my next assignment with amazing zeal to be better. Even when my inclination is to give up, I make myself propel forward. After my last round of edits and a conversation about word economy with my professor, I decided to invest in some vocabulary workbooks. 

The key is to never give up. That’s the easy route in law school. Don’t sabotage your hopes and dreams by letting yourself become despondent over word choice. Instead pick yourself up and learn from your mistakes. Mr. Weasley misspoke. He used the wrong words. He could have just stayed home after this blunder, but instead he went into work, put in the hours and worked to rectify his mistakes. And you can too! Just find that passion, find that drive, and push yourself forward! You’ll be happy that you did.

Until Next Time,

Mischief Managed