Contributor's Guide

Welcome to the Report Contributor's Guide!

This guide will provide an overview of your responsibilities as a Contributor of a Digest Report. Reports are short objective overviews, 500–700 words in length, of recent court opinions or pieces of legislation. They also provide links to primary sources and additional commentary for readers who want to dig deeper.

Subject Matter Coordinators (SMCs) are constantly looking for cutting edge developments in law & technology. They will assign the topic to you and a Report Editor. Your job is to write the substantive content of the report while the Report Editor will help you ensure it is publication-ready.

Writing Process in a Nutshell

  • Step 1: Getting Started

  • Step 2: Receiving and Confirming Receipt of Your Assignment

  • Step 3: Drafting the Report

  • Step 4: Edits to the Report

  • Step 5: Feedback

Unless otherwise noted, all of the following communications are designed to (and should) occur via email.

Step 1: Getting Started

You, the Digest Contributor, will be assigned reports according to the availability and subject matter preferences you submitted in the sign-up survey. SMCs will simultaneously assign Report Editors and Contributors to a topic.

Here's what the editing timeline will look like (unless otherwise stated):

  • Sunday Night: SMC will send the assigning email

  • Thursday by noon: Contributor finishes draft report

  • Saturday by noon: Editor submits all edits

  • Sunday by noon: Contributor finalizes changes

  • The following week: SMC and Digest Engagement Editor makes final edits, and Report is published

Step 2: Receiving and Confirming Receipt of Your Assignment

The SMC will send you and the Report Editor an assigning email with:

  1. Name of your Contributor and Editor

  2. Draft due date and editing timeline

  3. Report topic

    1. Background (parties, procedural posture, etc.)

    2. Significance of the case/legislation

    3. Link or attachment to primary source

    4. What to do if you want to choose a different topic

  4. Credentials for online Bluebook access

If the email is missing any information OR you have questions: immediately contact your Subject Matter Coordinator. If the Coordinator does not respond, feel free to contact the Digest Engagement Editor, who is also available to answer questions.

Your Responsibilities

After receiving your assignment from the Subject Matter Coordinator (SMC), immediately "reply all" to the email and:

  1. Confirm to the Coordinator and Editor that you have received and can complete the assignment.

  2. Alert the Coordinator and Editor to any problems that may delay your submission

If you simply cannot write the report within the required time, please let the SMC know as soon as possible so the SMC can find another Contributor. Note that you may not have the opportunity to write a Digest report at a later time.

Want to choose a different topic?

Please let your SMC know within 24 hours of receiving your assignment. A Report topic should be timely and related to law and technology.

Please include a link to the primary source and at least two links to other commentary on the topic in your email to your SMC. The SMC reserves the right to reject unsuitable topics.

Step 3: Drafting the Report

The purpose of Digest Reports is to provide a relatively brief and ideologically-neutral overview of their subject.

Your Responsibilities

  1. Read the original source provided in the assignment email

  2. Draft an impartial summary of the assignment email

  3. Include in the report at least two links to outside sources

As a Contributor, you are responsible for the technical and substantive accuracy of the report. Refer to the Style & Citations Guide for:

  1. What to look for in a case or legislation

  2. How to format citations

  3. Style guidelines

Please be very careful not to overstate or misrepresent the source. Digest Reports are often on the first page of Google inquiries for cutting-edge cases — getting it wrong has consequences. If you are unsure how to summarize a particular point, please ask for help. If all else fails, consider paraphrasing or quoting the source.

Visit Digest for examples of edited reports. Here are several examples.

Length - while the report’s length will vary with the complexity of the subject, generally the report should be no longer than 500–700 words. The purpose of the report is to provide an accurate overview of the most important aspects of the subject. Readers interested in further detail can visit the primary and secondary sources that will be included.

Google Docs - Please use Google Docs to draft, share, and edit your piece.

Report Structure & Organization

Please ensure that each submission adheres to the general organizational format described below. Contributors should not include their own independent analysis of the subject. Any analysis in the report should be clearly attributed to the source: either the court (by so stating) or to an author (by linking to the source). The standard structure is as follows.

  1. Report Title beginning with the colloquial case name;

  2. By-line, including names of the Contributor and the Editor;

  3. Citation to the subject, in the standard Digest format, and a hyperlink to the primary source;

  4. Opening Synopsis

    • Brief description of the subject (one or two sentences)

    • Short summary of the principal holdings, important legislative provisions, or reasons why the event being described is important (one or two paragraphs)

  5. Other Analysis

    • Description of the subject (see the resources following this structure for more subject-specific information)

    • Significance of subject according to the source (case--court; legislation--legislature)

    • Significance of subject according to secondary sources (e.g. expert blogs)

  6. Additional Resources

    1. Commentary: news articles, if accurate, & scholarly comment

    2. Related materials

  7. Optional: one line describing yourself and your interests which will be included at the end of your contributor post. e.g. "[Contributor’s name] is a (1L, 2L, 3L) at the Harvard Law School."

  8. Social Media Tagline: Your post will be tweeted out when published. Please write a tweet for us to use. Include hashtags as appropriate, and please remember Twitter has a 280 character limit. Examples can be found at the JOLT Twitter account. Feel free to include your username for us to tag you with.

Step 4: Edits to the Report

Your Responsibilities

  1. Comment sections of your Report that you believe need a closer review

  2. Share your draft on Google Doc

  3. Work with the Editor to finalize the piece

  4. Be available for any follow-up edits from the Subject Matter Coordinator

Please share your draft on Google Doc with the following:

  • Report Editor

  • Assigning Subject Matter Coordinator

  • Digest Engagement Editor (aloh@jd20)

  • Digest Account (joltdigest@mail.law.harvard.edu)

The easiest way to do this is to share a link in the assigning email thread. The Editor will have about three days to add comments and suggestions in the Google Doc. Please review them, finalize the draft, and notify the assigning SMC (via the email thread). The SMC will take another look and may offer an additional round of edits. You and the Editor will be asked to review the Report one last time before it is published.

Step 5: Feedback

You must fill out the feedback form to receive substantive feedback on your writing.

After the Report is published online, you will get an email from the Digest Engagement Editor with a link and a feedback form. We ask for your feedback on:

  1. Your experience writing the Report (to help us improve the process)

  2. Your experience working with the SMC and Editor (to help us make promotion decisions)

We also provide the opportunity to give anonymous feedback to your Editor. The Digest Engagement Editor will combine their feedback with your feedback and the SMC's. The feedback you receive will be similarly anonymized.

Thank you!

The JOLT Digest team thanks you for the time you will be putting into creating Digest content. We hope you enjoy the content creation process and working with the subject matter of your assignments.

Follow the JOLT Twitter or Facebook Page to stay up to date on all Digest publications!

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