Unit Synopsis
Effective, professional communication is central to legal practice. Lawyers must be able to think critically, communicate effectively with clients, opponents and the courts and also draft legal documents with precision. This unit develops these essential legal skills by providing an authentic, practice-based learning experience. In this unit you will undertake a variety of tasks that newly qualified lawyers are likely to undertake, such as drafting pleadings, affidavits, contracts, and letters of advice. You will also refine your oral communication skills by exploring strategies for effective client interviewing and persuasive advocacy.
Details
| Level | Undergraduate |
|---|---|
| Unit Level | 2 |
| Credit Points | 6 |
| Student Contribution Band | SCA Band 4 |
| Fraction of Full-Time Student Load | 0.125 |
| Pre-requisites or Co-requisites |
Pre-requisite of 24 credit points of law units including LAWS11057, LAWS11066 & LAWS11069. Important note: Students enrolled in a subsequent unit who failed their pre-requisite unit, should drop the subsequent unit before the census date or within 10 working days of Fail grade notification. Students who do not drop the unit in this timeframe cannot later drop the unit without academic and financial liability. See details in the Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework). |
| Class Timetable | View Unit Timetable |
| Residential School | No Residential School |
Unit Availabilities from Term 1 - 2026
Term 1 - 2026 Profile
Attendance Requirements
All on-campus students are expected to attend scheduled classes - in some units, these classes are identified as a mandatory (pass/fail) component and attendance is compulsory. International students, on a student visa, must maintain a full time study load and meet both attendance and academic progress requirements in each study period (satisfactory attendance for International students is defined as maintaining at least an 80% attendance record).
Recommended Student Time Commitment
Each 6-credit Undergraduate unit at CQUniversity requires an overall time commitment of an average of 12.5 hours of study per week, making a total of 150 hours for the unit.
Assessment Tasks
| Assessment Task | Weighting |
|---|---|
| 1. Online Quiz(zes) | 10% |
| 2. Practical Assessment | 60% |
| 3. Portfolio | 30% |
This is a graded unit: your overall grade will be calculated from the marks or grades for each assessment task, based on the relative weightings shown in the table above. You must obtain an overall mark for the unit of at least 50%, or an overall grade of ‘pass’ in order to pass the unit. If any ‘pass/fail’ tasks are shown in the table above they must also be completed successfully (‘pass’ grade). You must also meet any minimum mark requirements specified for a particular assessment task, as detailed in the ‘assessment task’ section (note that in some instances, the minimum mark for a task may be greater than 50%).
Past Exams
All University policies are available on the Policy web site, however you may wish to directly view the following policies below.
This list is not an exhaustive list of all University policies. The full list of policies are available on the Policy web site .
Term 2 - 2025 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 84.21% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 29.23% response rate.
Feedback, Recommendations and Responses
Every unit is reviewed for enhancement each year. At the most recent review, the following staff and student feedback items were identified and recommendations were made.
Source: Tutor reflection, comments from students in their reflective portfolios
Students benefitted from the peer review/collaboration process in the second half of the unit and this helped strengthen the 'drafting community'
Include a peer review/collaboration exercise in the first half of the term to further strengthen the 'drafting community'.
The peer review exercises were maintained. Students were encouraged to engage in peer review through MS Teams in relation to tasks in the first half of the portfolio.
Source: Tutor reflection, comments from students in their reflective portfolios
Even though the drafting portfolio should be completed weekly, some students were not completing it until shortly before the deadline in week 12, which impacted on the quality and the progression of their drafting skills
Explore whether the drafting portfolio could be submitted on a weekly/fortnightly basis or in two parts to ensure students complete their portfolios over the course of the term.
A review of the assessment took place. It was decided not to split the submission into two because the timing of this would coincide with the practical assessment task and this would increase stress for students.
Source: SUTE comments and informal feedback
Some students identify that they do not keep on top of the weekly tasks because they are not required to submit anything until the end. This also means that the peer review exercises are often rushed and completed (if at all) shortly before the deadline.
Explore with the Learning and Teaching team whether any teaching and learning assets (i.e. in Moodle) can be leveraged so that students submit a compilation of drafting tasks across the term while also requiring students to engage in peer review and collaborative learning on a regular basis.
In Progress
Source: Tutor reflection
Although one module is dedicated to learning the benefits and pitfalls of using generative AI, students should not rely on generative AI to build their portfolio or complete the practical assessment task as they need to first acquire a sufficient level of competency in drafting to be able to recognise any drafting issues produced by generative AI. The assessment design must therefore include components which cannot be completed through reliance on generative AI alone.
Incorporate an oral component into the assessment design.
In Progress
On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
- Communicate effectively both orally and in writing
- Apply the principles of plain English drafting, principles of interpretation, and drafting conventions to create legal documents that comply with the client’s instructions and the objectives of the document
- Reflect critically on written work and provide comprehensive feedback to others through a peer review process.
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| 1 - Online Quiz(zes) | • | ||
| 2 - Practical Assessment | • | • | • |
| 3 - Portfolio | • | • | • |
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | |
| 1 - Communication | • | • | • |
| 2 - Problem Solving | • | • | |
| 3 - Critical Thinking | • | ||
| 4 - Information Literacy | • | ||
| 5 - Team Work | • | ||
| 6 - Information Technology Competence | • | • | |
| Assessment Tasks | Graduate Attributes | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 10 | |