FROM ANN ALTHOUSE, legal writing advice, with particular application to bar exam essays. As a guy who’s grading law review write-on comments — at my law school, for some bizarre reason, faculty do this — all I can say is yes, yes, yes.

On the larger issue of abolishing the bar exam because, as Elizabeth Wurtzel argues, it suppresses the free-thinkers, I have to ask — is that a bug, or a feature? At least, one of the things that keeps the legal academy better-grounded than, say, the humanities, is that our graduates have to pass a fairly difficult exam that is independently administered. The bar exam has its problems, God knows, but I think education in general would be improved by a requirement for independent certification of graduates.

Meanwhile, from the comments: “If you went to Yale and failed the bar, it’s because you didn’t study enough and thought you could get by on your natural genius.” Well, people fail the bar for all sorts of reasons. It’s unbecoming to try to turn it into a virtue, though.