By now we have explored all the content that we need to be successful. Now, we need to examine how that content is to be organized. We read several chapters that begin to tell us how to outline the discussion section. We also began reading more in depth about global and issue roadmaps and how to begin drafting those sections.
CREAC/IRAC and Outlining
CREAC and IRAC
Chapter 14-15 introduces CREAC and IRAC more fully. During my undergraduate, these formats were taught to me, but this reading helped me understand how to shape them properly into an outline. CREAC and IRAC is used to help organize your material to help the reader understand clearly what they are reading. It is a format that most legally-trained readers expect to see when they read a memo or a court opinion.
CREAC stands for:
Conclusion
Rule
Rule Explanation
Analysis
and Conclusion
IRAC stands for:
Issue
Rule
Analysis
Conclusion
These two different ways to organize your thoughts are very similar. In fact, they follow the same format except CREAC might go a little more in depth.
Global Roadmap Framework
Another way of saying the global roadmap framework is this is the format your legal writing discussion section should follow. The format goes like this:
Global Roadmap
An introductory paragraph that is used to announce the global rule and it’s conditions, list any issues or non-issues, and make a predictive assessment of our client’s claim
Issue Segment 1:
- Issue Roadmap
- Rule Explanation
- Rule Application
- Notice how the three points above outline IRAC.
Repeat for any additional issues
Drafting the Global and Issue Roadmap
A global roadmap (the introductory paragraph of the discussion section as a whole) has the following components:
- A prediction of our client’s outcome
- The global rule of law with its conditions
- An announcement of non-issues
- An announcement of issues
- Restatement of the prediction with a brief comment on meeting or not meeting the conditions of the issues.
Each point has a sentence or two or three dedicated towards helping the reader understand clearly what they are trying to understand from the discussion.
Next, we have the issue roadmap (an introductory paragraph to the issue of the discussion section. i.e. the “I” in IRAC). The components of the issue roadmap are as follows:
- Topic sentence that announces the issue
- Rule of law for the issue
- Proof for that rule of law (fact-based holding)
- Prediction for how the court would resolve the issue for your client.
Disclaimer
The content contained in this article may contain inaccuracies and is not intended to reflect the opinions, views, beliefs, or practices of any academic professor or publication. Instead, this content is a reflection on the author’s understanding of the law and legal practices.
