Bryan Garner's Articles

• A Writing Group Is a Great Way to Help Your Prose, Student Lawyer, Jan. 2006, pp. 10–11.

• A Recap of 2005 in Grammar, Usage & Writing, in 2006 Green Bag Almanac 19–28.

• What Separates the Good Prose from the Bad?, Student Lawyer, Nov. 2005, pp. 10–11.

• How Well Does He Write? John Roberts Pens Lucid, Adeptly Punctuated Opinions — with Occasional Congestion, The Legal Times, 12 Sept. 2005, p. 62.

• Make the Time to Enjoy These Classics on Law, Student Lawyer, Sept. 2005, pp. 12–13.

• Although IRAC Works for Exams, Avoid It in Practice, Student Lawyer, May 2005, pp. 10–11.

• Don't Know Much About Punctuation: Notes on a Stickler Wannabe, Texas Law Review, vol. 83, pp. 1443–52 (2005).

• Follow These 10 Writing Tips to Succeed at Your Law Firm, Student Lawyer, Mar. 2005, pp. 12–13.

• The Art of Boiling Down: James Fitzjames Stephens as Drafter and Lexicographer, Green Bag, Autumn 2005, pp. 27–35.

• Judges on Effective Writing: The Importance of Plain Language, Michigan Bar Journal, Mar. 1994, pp. 326–27, repr. in Michigan Bar Journal, Feb. 2005, pp. 44–45.

• Can You Beat Journal Editors at Word Picks?, Student Lawyer, Jan. 2005, pp. 12, 14.

• Editor's Column: Bryan Garner Counsels Appellate Lawyers and Judges on Effective Legal Writing (interview by Dorothy Easner), The Record, Winter 2005, pp. 20–22.

• The Year 2004 in Grammar, Usage & Writing, Green Bag, Winter 2005, pp. 201–06.

• A Secret to Success: Never Fail to Brief the Cases You Study, Student Lawyer, Nov. 2004, pp. 14, 16.

• Keeping a Journal Every Day Can Help Hone Your Writing, Student Lawyer, Sept. 2004, pp. 10, 12.

• Learn about Writing from Experts Who Wrote These Classics, Student Lawyer, May 2004, pp. 10–11.

• Making Peace in the Language Wars, Green Bag, Spring 2004, pp. 227–35.

• Great Lawyers Seek the Highest Level of Writing Competence, Student Lawyer, Mar. 2004, pp. 10–11.

• Law Review Pages Are (Rife or Ripe?) with Wrong Words. Can You Find Them?, Student Lawyer, Jan. 2004, pp. 11–12.

• Legal Lexicography, Green Bag, Winter 2003, pp. 151–61.

• Set Your Cites on this Great Style Debate, Student Lawyer, Nov. 2003, pp. 10–11.

• Footnoted Citations Can Make Memos and Briefs Easier to Comprehend, Student Lawyer, Sept. 2003, pp. 11–12.

• Put the Action in Your Verbs, and Your Verbs in Active Voice, Student Lawyer, May 2003, pp. 10–11.

• Writing Instructors Need Your Support, Because Schools Give Them So Little, Student Lawyer, Mar. 2003, pp. 10–11.

• Test Your Skills Against Editors of Law Reviews, Student Lawyer, Jan. 2003, pp. 9–10.

• As a Lawyer, You Will Need to Know and Use Standard English, Student Lawyer, Nov. 2002, pp. 10, 12.

• Effective Writing Requires Lifelong Commitment to Honing the Craft, Student Lawyer, Sept. 2002, pp. 10–11.

• Demand Letters Are Designed to Produce Results for Your Clients, Student Lawyer, Apr. 2002, pp. 9–10.

• Take this Quiz to Gauge Your Grammar Skills, Student Lawyer, Feb. 2002, pp. 10, 12.

• Judges on Briefing: A National Survey, Scribes Journal of Legal Writing, vol. 8, pp. 1–34 (2001-2002).

• Word Definitions Can Vary Greatly Between the Legal and the Nonlegal, Student Lawyer, Dec. 2001, pp. 10–11.

• Students Who Want to Be Good Writers Can Learn a Lesson from Tiger Woods, Student Lawyer, Oct. 2001, pp. 10–11.

• S/he/it Happens, but Prose Can Be Gender Neutral in Better Ways, Student Lawyer, Apr. 2001, pp. 8–9.

• “Writing Stutterers” Can Learn to Relax by Not Worrying about the “Rules,” Student Lawyer, Feb. 2001, pp. 12–13.

• Afterword, Court Review, vol. 38, p. 28 (2001).

• Clearing the Cobwebs from Judicial Opinions, Court Review, vol. 38, pp. 4–8, 10, 12 (2001).

• Take this Quiz to Determine Your Knack for Word Use, Student Lawyer, Dec. 2000, pp. 8–9.

• How Serious Is Your School about Writing?, Student Lawyer, Oct. 2000, pp. 16, 18.

• Using Certain Words Can Be Insensitive — even If the Dictionary Does Not Agree, Student Lawyer, Apr. 2000, pp. 14–15.

• To Answer Questions about Grammar and Word Usage, Consult the Proper Sources, Student Lawyer, Feb. 2000, pp. 12, 14.

• The Wit and Wisdom of Charlie Wright, Texas Law Review, vol. 76, pp. 1587–1605 (1998). (Reprinted and updated in Scribes Journal of Legal Writing, vol. 7, pp. 1–25 (2000)).

• The Citational Footnote, Scribes Journal of Legal Writing, vol. 7, pp. 97–106 (2000).

• How Can You Take Your Writing from Mush to Masterpiece?, Student Lawyer, Dec. 1999, pp. 11–12.

• Writing Well in Law Is a Perpetual Struggle for Clarity, Student Lawyer, Oct. 1999, pp. 16–17.

• Introduction, SMU Law Review, vol. 52, p. 657 (1999).

• The Three Parts of a Brief, Trial, Mar. 1999, pp. 92–93.

• The Art of Legal Writing, For the Defense, Dec. 1998, pp. 19–21.

• Debriefing Your Briefs, Trial, Oct. 1998, p. 85.

• Unclutter the Text by Footnoting Citations, Trial, Nov. 1997, pp. 87–88.

• Using the Flowers Paradigm to Write More Efficiently, Trial, May 1997, pp. 79–80.

• Issue-Framing: The Upshot of It All, Trial, Apr. 1997, pp. 74–76.

• Reconstructing Lindley Murray's Bibliophilic Legacy, Bookman's Weekly, 13 Jan. 1997, pp. 73–74.

• Ten Questions for Bryan Garner, The Scrivener, Fall 1996, pp. 1, 6–7.

• Remembering Judge Thomas Gibbs Gee, Review of Litigation, vol. 15, pp. 169–75 (1996).

• The Uncivil Lawyer: A Scourge at the Bar (with Judge Thomas Gibbs Gee), Review of Litigation, vol. 15, pp. 177–201 (1996).

• Plain Language: An Excerpt from A Dictionary of Modern Legal Usage, Michigan Bar Journal, vol. 74, pp. 1062–65 (1995).

• The Deep Issue: A New Approach to Framing Legal Questions, Scribes Journal of Legal Writing, vol. 5, pp. 1–39 (1994–1995).

• The Legal-Writing Skills Test, Scribes Journal of Legal Writing, vol. 5, pp. 107–40 (1994–1995).

• Two Publishers Reprint Historical Law Dictionaries, Scribes Journal of Legal Writing, vol. 5, pp. 167–68 (1994–1995).

• Planning an In-House Writing Workshop?: Reflections from a Veteran CLE Instructor, CLE J. & Register, vol. 40, no. 1, pp. 5–11 (1993).

• In Praise of Simplicity but in Derogation of Simplism, Scribes Journal of Legal Writing, vol. 4, pp. 123–24 (1993).

• Briefs to the Supreme Court, in The Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States 91 (1992).

• The Style of Supreme Court Opinions, in The Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States 607–11 (1992).

• The Lawyer's “Imply,” in Proceedings of the American Dialect Society (1992).

• On Beginning Sentences with But, Scribes Journal of Legal Writing, vol. 3, pp. 87–93 (1992), repr. in Michigan Bar Journal, Oct. 2003, pp. 43–44.

• Colloquiality in Law, Scribes Journal of Legal Writing, vol. 3, pp. 147–48 (1992).

• Insane Committees, Scribes Journal of Legal Writing, vol. 3, p. 151 (1992).

• Three Steps Toward Plain Language, The Subpoena (San Antonio Bar Ass'n), pp. 10–11 (April 1992).

• An Excerpt from The Elements of Legal Style: Rooting Out Sexism, Michigan Bar Journal, vol. 70, pp. 942–43 (Aug. 1991).

• An Approach to Legal Style, Scribes Journal of Legal Writing, vol. 2, pp. 1–35 (1991).

• The Wright–Garner–Maugans Correspondence on Complimentary Closes, Scribes Journal of Legal Writing, vol. 2, pp. 83–99 (1991).

• Alliteritis, Scribes Journal of Legal Writing, vol. 2, p. 145 (1991).

• Vocabulary-Building in the First Circuit, Scribes Journal of Legal Writing, vol. 2, pp. 150–55 (1991).

• On the Name of the “SJLW,” Scribes Journal of Legal Writing, vol. 2, pp. 160–63 (1991).

• Word-Karma, Dallas Bar Headnotes, vol. 15, no. 1, p. 16 (21 Jan. 1991).

• Excerpts from A Dictionary of Modern Legal Usage, Michigan Bar Journal (October 1990).

• A Scholar's View of Book Preservation, in Proceedings of the Conference on the Global Responsibility of Law Librarians, p. 113 (Fred B. Rothman & Co., 1990).

• An Uninformed System of Citation: The Maroonbook Blues, Scribes Journal of Legal Writing, vol. 1, pp. 191–96 (1990) (debating Prof. Douglas Laycock).

• The Missing Common-Law Words, in the State of the Language [a decennial anthology], 1990, ed. C. Ricks & L. Michaels (Univ. of California Press, 1990), pp. 235–45. (Essay reviewed in Legal Linguistics, The Legal Times, 23 April 1990, p. 54).

• Smelling of the Inkhorn: Vocabulary-Building with Judge Selya, Dallas Bar Headnotes, vol. 14, no. 2, pp. 16-17 (15 Feb. 1990).

• Pronunciation's Scofflaws, Dallas Bar Headnotes, vol. 13, no. 10, p. 12 (16 Oct. 1989).

• Novelties in Lawyer Talk, The Appellate Advocate, vol. 2, no. 4, pp. 9–12 (Summer 1989), repr. The Scrivener, pp. 3–6 (Winter 1989).

• Going Hence Without Day, Dallas Bar Headnotes, vol. 13, no. 10, p. 12 (16 Oct. 1989).

• Trippingly Off the Tongue: Doublets and Triplets of the Legal Idiom, Dallas Bar Headnotes, vol. 13, no. 9, pp. 14-15 (18 Sept. 1989), repr. in Maricopa County Lawyer, vol. 9, no. 5, p. 9 (May 1990).

• The Language of Appellate Advocacy, Litigation, vol. 15, no. 4, pp. 39–42, 58 (Summer 1989), repr. in Appellate Practice Manual 188–96 (ABA, 1992).

• The Oxford Law Dictionary: A Historical Dictionary for English-Speaking Jurisdictions, The Law Librarian [London], vol. 20, no. 2, pp. 55–56 (Aug. 1989).

• Lapsus Memoriae, Dallas Bar Headnotes, vol. 13, no. 5, p. 9 (15 May 1989).

• Cruel and Unusual English: When Judges Play with Words, Dallas Bar Headnotes, vol. 13, no. 2, pp. 12–13 (20 Feb. 1989).

• On Pun Control, Dallas Bar Headnotes, vol. 12, no. 11, p. 15 (21 Nov. 1988).

• The Word on the Street, ABA Journal, vol. 74, p. 105 (Dec. 1988).

• On Legal Style, ABA Journal, vol. 74, pp. 101–02 (Oct. 1988).

• The Hearsay Rule and Its Exceptions (with Barbara M.G. Lynn), University of Houston CLE Program, How to Offer and Exclude Evidence (April 1988) [course booklet].

• A Grammatical Grotesquerie in Texas Practice, Dallas Bar Headnotes, vol. 12, no. 7, p. 12 (18 July 1988), repr. DALS Diary, vol. 37, no. 4, pp. 13-15 (Aug. 1988).

• Testamentary Depositions and Other Curiosities, Dallas Bar Headnotes, vol. 12, no. 5, p. 13 (16 May 1988).

• Finding the Right Words, Michigan Bar Journal, vol. 67, no. 8, pp. 762–64 (1988).

• Latinate Past Participles as Metrical and Stylistic Variants in Shakespeare, Language and Style, vol. 19, pp. 242–47 (1986).

• UTmost Interviews John Simon, UTmost, pp. 36-40 (Winter 1984).

• Learned Length and Thund'ring Sound: A Word-Lover's Panegyric, Verbatim, vol. 3, no. 3, pp. 1–3 (Winter 1984).

• Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew, V.II.54, The Explicator, vol. 41, no. 3, pp. 16–17 (Spring 1983).

• Etymological Overlap: Analogous Derivatives in English, Verbatim, vol. 10, no. 2, pp. 20–21 (Autumn 1983).

• Latin-Saxon Hybrids in Shakespeare and the Bible, Studies in the Humanities, vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 39–44 (June 1983), repr. in a Reader in the Language of Shakespearean Drama (Amsterdam: John Benjamins 1987), abridged as Shakespeare's Latin-Saxon Hybrids, the Shakespeare Newsletter, vol. 33, no. 4, p. 40 (Winter 1983).

• Shakespeare's Learned Language, The Shakespeare Newsletter, vol. 33, no. 4, p. 40 (Winter 1983).

• Shakespeare's Latinate Neologisms, Shakespeare Studies, vol. 15, pp. 149-70 (1982), repr. in a Reader in the Language of Shakespearean Drama (Amsterdam: John Benjamins 1987), abridged as Shakespeare as Latinate Wordmaker, The Shakespeare Newsletter, vol. 33, no. 4, p. 40 (Winter 1983).

• A Note on Holofernes' Pronunciamentos, American Notes & Queries, vol. 20, nos. 7 & 8, pp. 100–01 (Mar./Apr. 1982).

• Meretricious Words, or the Quean's English, Verbatim, vol. 8, no. 3, pp. 1–5 (Winter 1982).

• A Note on the Ambiguity of Macbeth's “Intrenchant,” American Notes & Queries, vol. 20, nos. 3 & 4, pp. 39–43 (Nov./Dec. 1981), repr. in American Notes & Queries, vol. 21, nos. 3 & 4, pp. 36–40 (Nov./Dec. 1982).