Articles by Bryan A. Garner

American Bar Association Journal

ABA Student Lawyer

Green Bag Almanac

Law & Bar Journals

  • Finding Good Writing Mentors, 91 Mich. B. J. 44–45 (March 2012).
  • The 20 Most Common Sentence-Level Faults Among Legal Writers, 91 Mich. B. J. 48–49 (Feb. 2012).
  • Don’t Know Much About Punctuation: Notes on a Stickler Wannabe, 83 Tex. L. Rev. 1443–52 (2005).
  • Judges on Effective Writing: The Importance of Plain Language, Mich. B. J. 326–27 (Mar. 1994) (reprinted in Mich. B. J. 44–45 (Feb. 2005)).
  • Clearing the Cobwebs from Judicial Opinions, 38 Ct. Rev. 4–8, 10, 12 (2001).
  • Afterword, 38 Ct. Rev. 28 (2001).
  • The Wit and Wisdom of Charlie Wright, 76 Tex. L. Rev. 1587–1605 (1998) (reprinted and updated in 7 Scribes J.  Leg. Writing 1–25 (2000)).
  • Introduction, 52 SMU L. Rev. 657 (1999).
  • Remembering Judge Thomas Gibbs Gee, 15 Rev. Litig. 169–75 (1996).
  • The Uncivil Lawyer: A Scourge at the Bar (with Judge Thomas Gibbs Gee), 15 Rev. Litig. 177–201 (1996).
  • Plain Language: An Excerpt from A Dictionary of Modern Legal Usage, 74 Mich. B. J. 1062–65 (1995).
  • An Excerpt from The Elements of Legal Style: Rooting Out Sexism, 70 Mich. B. J. 942–43 (Aug. 1991).
  • Word-Karma, 15 Dallas Bar Headnotes 16 (Jan. 21, 1991).
  • Excerpts from A Dictionary of Modern Legal Usage, Mich. B. J. (Oct. 1990).
  • Smelling of the Inkhorn: Vocabulary-Building with Judge Selya, 14 Dallas Bar Headnotes 16-17 (Feb. 15, 1990).
  • On Pun Control, 12 Dallas Bar Headnotes 15 (Nov. 21, 1988).
  • Pronunciation’s Scofflaws, 13 Dallas Bar Headnotes 12 (Oct. 16, 1989).
  • Novelties in Lawyer Talk, 2 Appellate Advocate 9–12 (Summer 1989) (reprinted in Scrivener 3–6 (Winter 1989)).
  • Going Hence Without Day, 13 Dallas Bar Headnotes 12 (Oct. 16, 1989).
  • Trippingly Off the Tongue: Doublets and Triplets of the Legal Idiom, 13 Dallas Bar Headnotes 14-15 (Sept. 18, 1989) (reprinted in 9 Maricopa County Lawyer 9 (May 1990)).
  • The Language of Appellate Advocacy, 15 Litig. 39–42, 58 (Summer 1989) (reprinted in Appellate Practice Manual 188–96 (ABA, 1992)).
  • Lapsus Memoriae, 13 Dallas Bar Headnotes 9 (May 15, 1989).
  • Cruel and Unusual English: When Judges Play with Words, 13 Dallas Bar Headnotes 12–13 (Feb. 20, 1989).
  • A Grammatical Grotesquerie in Texas Practice, 12 Dallas Bar Headnotes 12 (July 18, 1988) (reprinted in 37 DALS Diary 13-15 (Aug. 1988)).
  • Testamentary Depositions and Other Curiosities, 12 Dallas Bar Headnotes 13 (May 16, 1988).
  • Finding the Right Words, 67 Mich. B. J. 762–64 (1988).

Scribes Journal of Legal Writing

  • Judges on Briefing: A National Survey, 8 Scribes J. Leg. Writing 1–34 (2001–2002).
  • The Citational Footnote, 7 Scribes J. Leg. Writing 97–106 (2000).
  • The Deep Issue: A New Approach to Framing Legal Questions, 5 Scribes J. Leg. Writing 1–39 (1994–1995).
  • The Legal-Writing Skills Test, 5 Scribes J. Leg. Writing 107–40 (1994–1995).
  • Two Publishers Reprint Historical Law Dictionaries, 5 Scribes J. Leg. Writing 167–68 (1994–1995).
  • In Praise of Simplicity but in Derogation of Simplism, 4 Scribes J. Leg. Writing 123–24 (1993).
  • Colloquiality in Law, 3 Scribes J. Leg. Writing 147–48 (1992).
  • Insane Committees, 3 Scribes J. Leg. Writing 151 (1992).
  • On Beginning Sentences with But, 3 Scribes J. Leg. Writing 87–93 (1992) (reprinted in Mich. B. J.  43–44 (Oct. 2003)).
  • An Approach to Legal Style, 2 Scribes J. Leg. Writing 1–35 (1991).
  • The Wright–Garner–Maugans Correspondence on Complimentary Closes, 2 Scribes J. Leg. Writing 83–99 (1991).
  • Alliteritis, 2 Scribes J. Leg. Writing 145 (1991).
  • Vocabulary-Building in the First Circuit, 2 Scribes J. Leg. Writing 150–55 (1991).
  • On the Name of the “SJLW”, 2 Scribes J. Leg. Writing 160–63 (1991).
  • An Uninformed System of Citation: The Maroonbook Blues, 1 Scribes J. Leg. Writing 191–96 (1990) (debating Prof. Douglas Laycock).

Trial

  • The Three Parts of a Brief, Trial 92–93 (Mar. 1999).
  • Debriefing Your Briefs, Trial 85 (Oct. 1998).
  • Unclutter the Text by Footnoting Citations, Trial 87–88 (Nov. 1997).
  • Using the Flowers Paradigm to Write More Efficiently, Trial 79–80 (May 1997).
  • Issue-Framing: The Upshot of It All, Trial 74–76 (Apr. 1997).

Other Publications

  • Bryan A. Garner on American’s Unwritten Constitution: The Precedents and Principles We Live By, Los Angeles Review of Books. (Dec. 9, 2012). Web. 18 Jan. 2016.
  • The Opinion Pages: Which Language and Grammar Rules to Flout, N.Y. Times. (Sept. 27, 2012). Web 15 Jan. 2016. http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2012/09/27/which-language-and-grammar-rules-to-flout.
  • Webinar, N.Y. Times. (Feb. 25, 2010). Web. 15 Jan. 2016. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/28/magazine/28FOB-onlanguage-t.html?_r=0.
  • The Ongoing Struggles of Garlic-Hangers, in 3 Forum: A Publication of the ALSC 20–32 (Spring 2009).
  • Legal Lexicography: A View From the Front Lines, in Language and the Law: Proceedings of a Conference 109–124 (2003).
  • Editor’s Column: Bryan Garner Counsels Appellate Lawyers and Judges on Effective Legal Writing (interview by Dorothy Easner), Record 20–22 (Winter 2005).
  • The Art of Legal Writing, For the Defense 19–21 (Dec. 1998).
  • Reconstructing Lindley Murray’s Bibliophilic Legacy, Bookman’s Weekly 73–74 (Jan. 13, 1997).
  • Ten Questions for Bryan Garner, Scrivener 1, 6–7 (Fall 1996).
  • Planning an In-House Writing Workshop?: Reflections from a Veteran CLE Instructor, 40 CLE J. & Register 5–11 (1993).
  • Three Steps Toward Plain Language, Subpoena (San Antonio Bar Ass‘n) 10–11 (Apr. 1992).
  • 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).
  • A Scholar’s View of Book Preservation, in Proceedings of the Conference on the Global Responsibility of Law Librarians 113 (Fred B. Rothman & Co. ed., 1990).
  • The Missing Common-Law Words, in The State of the Language: 1990 Edition 235–45 (C. Ricks & L. Michaels eds., 2d ed., Univ. California Press 1990) (essay reviewed in Legal Linguistics, Legal Times 54 (Apr. 23, 1990)).
  • The Oxford Law Dictionary: A Historical Dictionary for English-Speaking Jurisdictions, 20 Law Librarian (London) 55–56 (Aug. 1989).
  • The Hearsay Rule and Its Exceptions (with Barbara M.G. Lynn), Bryan Garner and Barbara M.G. Lynn, CLE Presentation (Apr. 1988) (in course booklet of Univ. Houston CLE Program: How to Offer and Exclude Evidence).
  • UTmost Interviews John Simon, UTmost 36-40 (Winter 1984).
  • Learned Length and Thund’ring Sound: A Word-Lover’s Panegyric, 3 Verbatim 1–3 (Winter 1984).

Shakespeare

  • Shakespeare’s Latinate Neologisms, 15 Shakespeare Studies 149-70 (1982) (reprinted in A Reader in the Language of Shakespearean Drama (John Benjamins 1987)) (abridged as Shakespeare as Latinate Wordmaker, 33 Shakespeare Newsletter 40 (Winter 1983)).
  • Latinate Past Participles as Metrical and Stylistic Variants in Shakespeare, 19 Language and Style 242–47 (1986).
  • Shakespeare’s Learned Language, 33 The Shakespeare Newsletter 40 (Winter 1983).
  • Etymological Overlap: Analogous Derivatives in English, 10 Verbatim 20–21 (Autumn 1983).
  • Latin-Saxon Hybrids in Shakespeare and the Bible, 10 Studies in the Humanities 39–44 (June 1983) (abridged as Shakespeare’s Latin-Saxon Hybrids, 33 Shakespeare Newsletter 40 (Winter 1983)) (reprinted in, A Reader in the Language of Shakespearean Drama (John Benjamins 1987)).
  • Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew, V.II.54, 41 Explicator 16–17 (Spring 1983).
  • A Note on Holofernes’ Pronunciamentos, 20 American Notes & Queries 100–01 (Mar./Apr. 1982).
  • Meretricious Words, or the Quean’s English, 8 Verbatim 1–5 (Winter 1982).
  • A Note on the Ambiguity of Macbeth’s “Intrenchant”, 20 American Notes & Queries 39–43 (Nov./Dec. 1981) (reprinted in 21 American Notes & Queries 36–40 (Nov./Dec. 1982)).

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