IRAC IRAC IRAC

So, bar examiners really love the ol' IRAC for essays. For those of you fortunate enough to have avoided law school, "IRAC" is an acronym for Issue, Rule, Analysis, Conclusion; it's a popular structure for writing law essay answer. For example:

Q. Does preparing for the bar suck? Discuss.

A. The issue is whether preparing for the bar sucks. As a general rule, things that take a great deal of time and are not fun suck. Preparing for the bar exam requires spending many hours each day for several weeks reading law outlines, writing sample essays, taking sample multiple choice questions, and listening to lectures that are generally not interesting. Writing sample essays, answering sample multiple choice questions, reading law outlines, and listening to lectures that are generally not interesting are not fun. Therefore, unless preparing for the bar falls under an acknowledged exception to the general rule, preparing for the bar sucks. Although there may be exceptions to the general rule that things that take a great deal of time and are not fun suck, I cannot think of any right now, and even if I could, things that take AS MUCH time as preparing for the bar, and are AS LITTLE fun as preparing for the bar would doubtless not fall under the exception. Therefore, preparing for the bar sucks.

I've color coded the sample answer so you can move easily from ISSUE (blue) through RULE (red) and ANALYSIS (green) to CONCLUSION (purple).