As the fall semester hits the half way mark, the two Morningside mock trial teams are gearing up for their first competition. Mockers at Morningside College have been working since the first day of classes of the fall semester to prepare for the long competing season. The season involves months of preparation, and competitions from October through March, when regional competitions are held.
Mock trial is the reenactment of a case in a courtroom setting. Each team is composed of three witnesses and three attorneys, and the teams play both defense and plaintiff. Mock trial is not only for political science and pre-law students. It’s a pretty diverse activity to be part of. The teams at Morningside have majors from elementary education, history, pre-law, and theatre, among others.
“Throughout my experiences in mock trial, I have witnessed theatre majors portray accents, design costumes, and give life to the person they are supposed to be. I have also watched perspective lawyers, too nervous to talk in front of their friends, stand toe-to-toe with the best team in the state,” said sophomore elementary education major, Liz Johnson. Johnson has been in mock trial since she was in high school and has plans on becoming a lawyer in her future.
She advocated that mock trial truly helps a person. “Mock trial doesn’t just help you become a lawyer, it helps you gain confidence and step out of your shell,” she said.
This year, collegiate mock trial teams throughout the entire nation will compete over a civil case. The case was written about a fictional accidental death of a spouse while a couple was on vacation. “It’s about an extremely dangerous scuba dive, where a diver had a medical condition, and the scuba diving company left her down in the water to die,” Johnson stated. The teams develop their cases to best suit their interests and goals and to best portray the witnesses they are calling to the stand.
“Now we have to decide if it’s the scuba diving company’s fault or the diver’s fault for failure to disclose information about her medical history,” Johnson said.
She compared this year’s case to last year, saying, “This year’s case only has two witnesses deal with math and tables, which makes it easier.”
The upcoming competition, taking place at Hamline University in St. Paul, will be held over fall break. The team will compete in four rounds over the course of two days, performing both plaintiff and defense roles twice.
“Neither team knows what to expect at this point. I think once the first competition is under our belt, we can start being more competitive and all of the tension will fall away,” Johnson said.
Regardless of the nervousness in the team, Morningside’s mock trial teams, well prepared, will put up a fight at Hamline University over fall break. They are in for a long season, but one worth the effort.
graph 3 – “mock trial truly helps a person”….. in what or to do what exactly? embellish that sentence a bit more.
Very well written overall, I could see the images of the mock trial participants pacing back and fourth in a court of law. Quotes were spot on.
however when you hand it in, the part that says:
(I was initially going to write on the topic of 5k /10k races in Sioux City, but I wasn’t not able to go over the weekend as I was sick. So I wrote over my back-up topic of the mock trial team at Morningside.)
Is pretty unnecessary.
This is a good start, Jianna. I hope you can get some info from Lillian in here. She’s a pretty obvious source, and easy enough to get hold of (I think).
Work on the lead paragraph. Streamline. “Since the first day of class members of Morningside’s mock trial teams have been …”
One idea to a paragraph.
Cut the last paragraph. You can’t predict the future.