However, it is helpful to restate the holding in your own words as this will help you increase your comprehension of the case. Some students prefer to include this section before the statement of facts. Book briefing involves making short marginal notes in the casebook and is generally an inadequate study method, especially in the first year. While these notes may be sufficiently clear to help a student respond in class, the book brief is not the equivalent of extensive note taking nor is it conducive to spontaneous thought on the case. A good brief facilitates coordination of classroom notes with personal study materials and references to the case itself.
Canned briefs are commercially prepared briefs of cases.
Also, final examination questions generally involve hypothetical factual situations similar to those found in the casebook. Since one of the functions of briefing is to give training in case analysis, a student who has relied upon canned briefs in doing case analysis will have great difficulty in analyzing final examination questions.