Monash Law Students' Society

PAPER AND ORAL COMPETITION

Sponsored by Allens Arthur Robinson: 

The Paper and Oral Competition Information Session will be held on Tuesday the 11th May at 1pm in H2/11

The Paper and Oral Competition is one of the easiest and yet one of the more prestigious competitions to be a part of. The competition is an invaluable opportunity to develop skills, such as: an ability to clearly identify important and relevant legal issues, structure a clear and strong argument and to engage an audience. It is also a fantastic opportunity to voice your opinion and acquire a greater knowledge of contentious issues in a certain area of the law. 

The competition provides a fantastic opportunity, as the winner will be the first choice candidate for selection to compete in the 2011 National Paper Presentation Final run by the Australian Law Students’ Association (ALSA).

The Rules

Why is it so easy? Because it involves submitting a piece of work that you have ALREADY submitted as part of your law degree. The type of written work that can be submitted ranges from an essay completed in one of your first year law subjects to one from one of your final year electives. The choice is yours!

The two main requirements are:

1. your essay scored at least 70% when originally marked; and
2. it must be between 3000 and 5000 words in length 

Once you have submitted your written piece, a panel of judges, comprised of Monash Academic Law staff will re-assess it, based on criteria specific to this competition. The judges will not be informed of the original mark awarded to the piece. The top three essays will then be presented orally to a panel of judges.

The Grand Final

Those finalists, chosen to participate in the Grand Final, must present a 15 minutes discourse to a panel of judges identifying the key arguments contained in the piece and explaining the subject matter of the written piece of work.

The presentation should be well structured and the audience, who may only have a limited knowledge of the topic, should be able to follow your presentation with relative easy. As such, you should not merely read the essay nor should you focus entirely on complicated and technical points. You are strongly encouraged to use visual aids (e.g. Powerpoints slides).

This presentation will be followed by five minutes of questioning time by both the judging panel and members of the audience.

Marks will be allocated as follows:

Part one: paper

• Thought and content – 10 marks
• Structure and organisation- 10 marks
• Research skills- 5 marks
• Expression and style- 10 mars
• Effectiveness of paper- 15 marks

Part two: oral

• Organisation- 10 marks
• Delivery- 15 marks
• Body Language- 5 marks
• Audience awareness- 5 marks
• Presentation effectiveness- 15 marks

Total available marks- 100  
 

Submissions are due at competitions@monashlss.com by 5pm Thursday 29th July 2010. Please make the subject of the email ‘Paper and Oral Competition- (your name)’.

In addition, you must fill out an entry form ONLINE by 5pm Thursday 29 July 2010. The form is found at: https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dGhlMktWVnZ4UVJaSWtRdnhmTHVFUGc6MQ

Finalists will be announced Friday 13 August 2010 (week 4 of semester 2) via email. 

The Grand Final (oral round) will be held on Wednesday 18 August 2010.

Further Information

For any other queries or questions, see the documents below or contact the competitions team at competitions@monashlss.asn.au or come and visit us in the office!

Or have a read of the competitors guide and info pamphlet (see links below)