As a law student, you have a big challenge ahead of you when it comes to writing. You need to learn how to write clearly, concisely, and persuasively if you want to be successful in your legal career. Although it might seem like ChatGPT (or other chatbots) can do the work for you, this is often not true. Here are five reasons why you should learn the basics of good writing skills and not rely on chatbots:
You won’t have access to ChatGPT or other chatbots during the bar exam
One of the most important things to remember is that you won’t have access to chatbots like ChatGPT when you take the bar exam. The bar exam is a critical test that determines whether you can practice law in a particular state, and it is typically a closed-book test. This means that you won’t be able to use chatbots to write your legal arguments or to clean up your writing.
Relying on chatbots hinders your thinking
When you rely on a chatbot like ChatGPT to write your legal arguments for you, you won’t develop your own thinking skills. Writing is an important part of the legal process because it allows you to organize your thoughts and develop your arguments. If you rely on a chatbot to do the writing for you, you won’t develop the skills you need to defend your arguments in front of a judge.
Chatbots can’t convey your voice and perspective
Another reason why you need to learn the basics of good writing skills is that chatbots can’t convey your voice and perspective. A legal argument is not just about the facts; it’s also about the way you present those facts. You need to be able to write in a way that is persuasive and that convinces the reader of your point of view. Chatbots might be able to clean up your writing and make it grammatically correct, but they can’t convey your voice and perspective in the way that you can.
Writing by chatbots can create confusion
It’s important to remember that misplaced commas can lead to misunderstandings and confusion, but chatbots don’t understand that. In the legal world, a misplaced comma can mean the difference between a sentence that is easy to understand and a sentence that is difficult to interpret. For example, a document with a misplaced comma could result in a lawsuit over what the writer really meant. This has actually happened. If a chatbot like ChatGPT doesn’t understand the writer’s intent, the chatbot might punctuate a sentence in a way that appears correct but that delivers an ambiguous meaning. This could lead to misunderstandings and confusion, which is never good in legal documents.
In the words of ChatGPT: “Chatbots like ChatGPT are trained on large amounts of text data, but they do not have a deep understanding of the context or meaning behind the text. While they are designed to identify patterns in the text and correct mistakes, they can only do so based on the training data they have received. They may not always understand the intended meaning behind a sentence, especially when it comes to issues like misplaced commas and other subtle nuances of language that can impact meaning. As a result, there is always a risk that a chatbot will make mistakes and subvert a writer’s intent.”
Confidential or private information isn’t secure with chatbots
When you’re an attorney, you won’t be able to use ChatGPT or any other chatbot to fix the writing in any document that contains confidential or private information about a client. This is because other people can read the information on the Internet and that includes information given to ChatGPT. Thus, you need to learn how to write well yourself – and that includes mastering basic writing skills such as grammar, punctuation, and syntax.
BOTTOM LINE
Law students need to master the basics of good writing skills for many reasons. Although chatbots like ChatGPT can sometimes help clean up your writing, you should not try to use them instead of developing your own writing skills. You need to be able to write clearly, concisely, and persuasively if you want to be successful in your legal career. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that you can rely on chatbots to do the work for you.
For help strengthening your writing skills, make an appointment to meet with one of your law school’s writing coaches.
