LawProse Lessons

One sign that a language is alive is that it evolves. Latin, a dead language, stopped changing the moment people stopped using it in everyday life. But thriving languages change constantly, though slowly. Chaucer noticed this truth as far back as 1385: Ye knowe ek that in forme of speche is chaungeWithinne a thousand yer, …

LawProse Lesson 421: Language constantly changes Read More »

It’s a truism that a clear writing style comes from a clear mind. The necessary corollary is that unclarity proceeds from a hazy mind, which will inevitably produce an unintelligible jumble. But this isn’t a prescription for good writing. You can’t just say, “Think more clearly!” and be done with it. No. People need exercises …

LawProse Lesson #420: Clarity of style from clarity of mind Read More »

What does The New Kid on the Block or any other poetry book by Jack Prelutsky have to do with lawyers’ writing? (If you don’t know his books, they’re perfect for reading aloud to kids.) In some ways, a great deal. A few years ago, Prelutsky was asked what he does when his writing isn’t going well. …

LawProse Lesson #419: Jack Prelutsky on writing well Read More »

The best writing instruction is holistic and broad, not just covering dozens of nitpicky grammatical points. Instead, it deals with the essence of inventing arguments. Effective teaching deals with creativity that enhances your mental capacities: recognizing similarities and differences, knowing the significance of factual changes, being able to shift levels of thought, and understanding differing …

LawProse Lesson #418: A Holistic Approach to Writing Read More »

Can you recommend a good book on writing? We’re often asked this broadly phrased question. But because “writing” is such a broad subject, what one person needs isn’t the same as what someone else would find most helpful. If the question relates to grammar and usage—the thousand nitty-gritty issues of English wording—it’s hard to beat Garner’s Modern …

LawProse Lesson #417: A good book on writing Read More »

You sometimes hear that writing “can’t be taught.” The statement has some truth in it: because writing is a complex integration of thought and technique, no teacher can supervise you while you do it. As a field of practical application, it requires doing. Only when you actually write can you apply whatever theories you might …

LawProse Lesson #416: Writing Can’t Be Taught Read More »

What happens when you write a good letter, memo, motion, or brief within a reasonable time according to your skill level—one that suits both your purposes and your reader’s? You rely on stored knowledge that you’ve made automatic. Without trying, you’ve blended the powers of your subconscious and conscious minds. The subconscious part is the …

LawProse Lesson #415: Your Subconscious Competence Read More »

A traditional daily newspaper contains about 150,000 words—meaning that the journalists produce the equivalent of a 250-page book every 24 hours. They uniformly follow a style manual to ensure consistency in writing.          Most law offices of 50–75 lawyers produce that much work every workday as well. Like good journalists, they insist on accuracy …

LawProse Lesson #414: Why a legal style manual? Read More »

You’ve read thousands of pieces of writing. You may even have produced thousands—in which case you probably have strong likes and dislikes about myriad aspects of writing. At times, you may feel as if you’ve reached your limits as a writer, that you have little if anything left to learn about the subject. Well, it’s …

LawProse Lesson #413: Learning to enjoy writing Read More »

People commonly write for any of six reasons: (1) to express themselves, (2) to inform others, (3) to explain things, (4) to criticize, (5) to argue a point, and (6) to entertain. Nos. 2–5 all have a necessary place in persuasion, and no. 6 (at a subdued level) is a definite plus.           To persuade, you …

LawProse Lesson #412: How writing persuades Read More »

Let’s say an undergraduate professor once assigned you to write a critical report on a recently published book. You were expected to read it closely and to consult additional sources, such as related publications and book reviews. Your professor made several assumptions about your capabilities: that you could read and understand college-level materials;that you could …

LawProse Lesson #411: What professors and judges have in common? Read More »

Last time, we promised a treatment of editing vs. proofreading. Both involve improving a draft, but there are major differences. There are even two types of editing: macro-editing (reorganizing sections, supplying new text, etc.) and line-editing (making sentence-level improvements, such as enhancing word choices and rewording sentences so that, to the extent possible, each one …

LawProse Lesson #410: Editing vs. Proofreading Read More »

Whatever their level of competence, revisers can make only three types of alterations: delete, replace, and insert. Any of these should improve a piece, not detract from it.   Deletions involve removing whatever is unhelpful, whether superfluous words (June of 2022 becomes June 2022), redundancies (general consensus becomes consensus), undesirable repetitions (often resulting from inexpert phrasing), and even weak arguments. Yes, sometimes …

LawProse Lesson #409: The Kinds of Editorial Changes Read More »

Bryan A. Garner, the founder of LawProse, has devoted his National Review column (“Garner the Grammarian”) to why American judges so frequently cite dictionaries and grammars. You’ll find it here: https://rb.gy/3vlma. The magazine editors have kindly dropped their paywall for a limited time so you can access this.         If you’re not already …

LawProse Lesson #409 Why Judges Cite Dictionaries Read More »

“I’m ready for my public now,” the late Dame Edna Everage used to say. Less jokingly, a writer might say, “I’m ready for my readers now.”          But what does the writer’s statement mean? It means that, as a writer, you have an ever-present awareness of your audience. It’s a matter of psychological preparation. If you …

LawProse Lesson #408 The Importance of a Writer’s Audience Read More »

Writing is a basic skill, especially in law. And so those of you who read last month in The New Yorker that humanities majors are declining precipitously in universities everywhere might have been alarmed. In the past decade, English majors have fallen by half in many if not most universities. At Harvard, the dean of …

LawProse Lesson #407 The Troubling Decline of the Humanities Read More »

As an editor or self-editor, you’re essentially a physician treating a patient (the composition). You must be a good diagnostician, and you must know the best possible treatments. Is the problem a superficial condition akin to slight bruising, or is it something so serious as to require resuscitation and intensive care?           To treat the sick, …

LawProse Lesson #406 You as Editor/Physician Read More »

Professional writers know that they’ve had to abandon various “school rules” to become successful. They’ve had to unlearn the untruths that seemingly all writers pick up along the way. (A prime example is the idea that you should never write a one-sentence paragraph.) A renegade writer rejects superstitions. The important thing is to know which …

LawProse Lesson #405 Renegade Writers Read More »

One common problem that legal writers have is plunging into sections of a project before developing a good sense of the whole. Imagine building parts of a house before having an architectural plan. A superb technique for team writing projects is to have every member individually prepare point headings—full-sentence propositions. These team members must be …

LawProse Lesson #404 Seeing the Forest Read More »

In 1943, Robert Graves and Alan Hodge wrote a classic book on English prose: The Reader over Your Shoulder: A Handbook for Writers of English Prose. It has stayed in print ever since, enjoying a particular upsurge in sales when re-released in the late 1970s. In their opening chapter, Graves and Hodge focus on a …

LawProse Lesson #403 The Reader over Your Shoulder Read More »