Here is an article I wrote for the DRI magazine, For the Defense, on writing more effective e-mail. As you’ll see from reading it, Lynn Gaertner-Johnston deserves credit for some of its ideas. Lynn writes a blog called Business Writing, a must-read for lawyers and others whose jobs involve any sort of writing, and e-mail is one of her frequent subjects.
You can test your proofreading eye by finding the mistakes in the PDF. Happy hunting.
The DRI magazine, For the Defense, runs a regular feature called “Writer’s Corner,” a one-page column on legal writing, written by a different contributor every month. I’ve written several of them over the last few years,1 and I’m scheduled to write it again for an upcoming summer issue. The deadline for my draft is May 30.
There’s just one problem: I have yet to think of a topic. But rather than rack my brain thinking of one, I thought I’d ask the largest group of legal-writing devotees I can find in one place—you—for some ideas. The topic must be something that: (1) can be covered in 900 words; (2) has not been covered in a recent “Writer’s Corner” column; and (3) I know enough about to write an original column.2
So if you have an idea, please leave a comment. Thanks.
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1. To read some of my past Writer’s Corner” columns, click on the Articles by me link under the Categories heading at right.
2. Yes, I know I messed up my parallel construction with that third item. But at least it fits grammatically with what precedes the enumeration.
Here is an article I wrote for the Winter 2008 issue of Certworthy about selecting the right font for a writing project. The skinny version:
(A few months ago, I posted Counting Each Shot, contrasting the storytelling techniques of Justices Stevens and Scalia in Atkins v. Virginia. Recently I wrote up a longer version of that post for the DRI appellate newsletter, Certworthy (which I happen to edit). This post is a reproduction of that article. To download a copy of the article in PDF, click here.)
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Counting Each Shot
“The difference between direct and indirect writing is the difference between witnessing the murder and finding the body.” Patricia T. O’Conner, Words Fail Me 150 (1999). As writers, we sometimes want to write indirectly, to soften or deflect the harsh facts. Other times, we want to write directly, to confront readers with those harsh facts. For lessons in doing both, let’s compare two passages from Atkins v. Virginia, 536 U.S. 304 (2002), describing the same crime. One is from Justice John Paul Stevens’s majority opinion; the other is from Justice Antonin Scalia’s dissenting opinion.
Here is a chapter on writing style that I contributed to a 2004 DRI publication, A Defense Lawyer’s Guide to Appellate Practice. The ideas are not original, but I hope the presentation is.
Download Style (PDF, 131K). Copyright © 2004 DRI and Raymond P. Ward.
DRI still sells the book in CD and paperback forms; you can find it by visiting the DRI bookstore, searching for appellate, and scrolling down the page a little bit. To view the list of contributing authors and the table of contents, click here.
Nine years ago, I wrote an article for the DRI appellate newsletter, Certworthy, on preparing to write an appellate brief. The idea behind the article is that 90% of the work occurs before the actual writing begins. I attempted to describe the process I normally went through in preparing to write a brief.
Last year, I updated the article for including in a DRI-published book, A Young Lawyer’s Guide to Defense Practice. I added some material to describe the processes of drafting and editing the brief — and making damned sure it gets filed timely. (For more information about the book, visit DRI’s bookstore.)
You can download either version by clicking on the appropriate link below. I don’t offer them as instructions for how you should write a brief, but as descriptions of how I write a brief — techniques that work for me. Different techniques may work better for you.
Download Preparing to Write an Appellate Brief (PDF, 434K). Certworthy, Spring 1998. Copyright © 1998 by DRI and Raymond P. Ward.
Download How to Write an Appellate Brief (PDF, 128K). Copyright © 2006 DRI and Raymond P. Ward.
[Click here for PDF version of this article.]
Every writer needs a good bookshelf full of well-used reference books. The lawyer is no exception. If you do a lot of writing (and what lawyer doesn’t?), then your bookshelf probably holds a good English-language dictionary, a comprehensive legal dictionary such as Black’s Law Dictionary, a citation guide such as the Bluebook or the ALWD Citation Manual, Bryan A. Garner’s A Dictionary of Modern Legal Usage, and other valuable reference books.
Today, in the Internet age, many tools for writers are available on the Web. Though there are still no on-line substitutes for many of the books mentioned above, there are many, many valuable Web-based resources to complement your reference-book collection. Here are a few of my favorites:
Continue reading "At Your Fingertips: On-Line Resources for Writers" »
“Writing is fighting,” Muhammad Ali once said. That’s certainly true of much legal writing. Just as the boxer who punches better than his opponent is more likely to win the fight, legal writing that has more punch is more likely to accomplish its purpose. How then, do we punch up our writing? Here is a collection of tips from the experts.
Continue reading "Punching up your writing: Advice from the experts" »
[Click here for PDF version of this article.]
Fred Rodell once complained that bad law-review writing often “looks as though it had been translated from the German by someone with a rather meager knowledge of English.” Goodbye to Law Reviews, 23 Va. L. Rev. 38, 39 (1936-37). I often think of Rodell’s complaint when reading something full of noun chains.
[Click here for PDF version of this article.]
Many lawyers disregard typography—how their writing looks on the page. If you’re one of them, you should cure this failing. The U.S. Seventh Circuit reminds briefwriters that for each argument session, a judge must read about 1,000 pages of briefs and related papers. You can improve the chance that the judge will remember what you wrote by making your brief typographically superior. “It won’t make your arguments better, but it will ensure that judges grasp and retain your points with less struggle. That’s a valuable advantage, which you should seize.” United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, Requirements and Suggestions for Typography in Briefs and Other Papers, (hereafter Requirements and Suggestions).
