LawProse Lesson #450: The Advocate’s Two Most Important Words

LawProse Lesson #450: The Advocate’s Two Most Important Words

As an advocate, what are your two most important words? Can you even identify their part of speech? Verbs? Nouns?

Remember: we’re asking about two particular words, not types of words. Do you give up?

They’re conjunctions—and subordinating conjunctions at that. The words are because and although. These words occur often in first-rate persuasive writing. Clunky writers, naturally enough, use them rarely.

Because, which introduces a reason, appears with great frequency in soundly written point headings. In a well-done table of contents, you’ll sometimes see it in more than half the full-sentence point headings. Example: “Forbis will prevail on the merits because Hamley is subject to a valid and enforceable restrictive covenant.”

Although, a concessive word that typifies the voice of reason, subordinates a contrary point that will be vanquished in the main clause. This word, too, appears frequently in sound point headings. Example: “Although this Court allows a choice in damages between lost value and repair costs, it guards against the very sort of double recovery that the Johnsons gained by this judgment.”

Although we’d like to discourse further on the power of these words, we’d better hold off because we’ve made the point—and we’re short of space.

Live seminars this year with Professor Bryan A. Garner: Advanced Legal Writing & Editing

Attend the most popular CLE seminar of all time. More than 215,000 people—including lawyers, judges, law clerks, and paralegals—have benefited since the early 1990s. You'll learn the keys to professional writing and acquire no-nonsense techniques to make your letters, memos, and briefs more powerful.

You'll also learn what doesn't work and why—know-how gathered through Professor Garner's unique experience in training lawyers at the country's top law firms, state and federal courts, government agencies, and Fortune 500 companies.

Professor Garner gives you the keys to make the most of your writing aptitude—in letters, memos, briefs, and more. The seminar covers five essential skills for persuasive writing:

  • framing issues that arrest the readers' attention;
  • cutting wordiness that wastes readers' time;
  • using transitions deftly to make your argument flow;
  • quoting authority more effectively; and
  • tackling your writing projects more efficiently.

He teaches dozens of techniques that make a big difference. Most important, he shows you what doesn't work—and why—and how to cultivate skillfulness.

Register to reserve your spot today.

Have you wanted to bring Professor Garner to teach your group? Contact us at info@lawprose.org for more information about in-house seminars.

Scroll to Top