What is the tone of the office memo?
What are the parts of the office memo?
How many sentences should the answer and issue be?
What is a thesis?
Resource:
Foundations of Legal Research and Writing | 5th Edition
Carol M. Bast, J.D./Margie A. Hawkins
Legal Writing
An office memo is a writing that focuses on addressing a specific question for the benefit of another lawyer. The reader has a general familiarity with law concepts and the expected specific content that familiarizes them with a specific case for relevance to analysis. The tone of the memo should be analytical through the use of the CRRACC paradigm, which involves conclusion, rule statement, rule explanation, application, counterargument, and conclusion. The tone of the memo should keep the needs and expectations of the audience, which is a legally-trained reader, in mind.
The standard parts of the office memorandum include the Heading and Caption, Question presented, Brief answer, Facts, Discussion, and Conclusion. The heading, the caption involves information on the person assigned the research project, the date the memo is turned, and the name of the client, and a brief description of the subject matter of the memorandum. The Question Presented is the memo’s subject is a question, mostly on the relevance of law applied to the key facts of the research problem.
The issue and the corresponding answer should be one sentence in length that gives the reader the most information possible. The answer and the issue should be around four-sentence and not more than five sentences. The answer is a full sentence response to the issue. The number of issues and answers should be the same; therefore, two issues should have two answers.
A thesis is a statement that targets a specific point and aspect of the law, which includes an articulation of the problem and the attempts to resolve as well as the main argument which develops from the topic selected.
Reference
Foundations of Legal Research and Writing | 5th Edition Carol M. Bast, J.D./Margie A. Hawkins
