the (new) legal writer

On the crafting of sentences

The New York Times has an interesting article by Constance Hale on crafting sentences.

Interesting article on “hard” and “soft” words

Word choice goes a long way to establishing the tone of any writing. And the English language, with its widespread roots, often provides a menu of words to express a thought. Your menu choices will often either increase or lessen the writing’s impact. To heighten your sensitivity to the hardness and softness of your word choices, read Roy Peter Clark’s recent article, How to make your writing stronger by mixing ‘hard’ & ‘soft’ words.

Great article about ethos

Check out Scott Stolley’s new article on Reclaiming Your Writer’s Ethos. I’ve had the pleasure of knowing Scott for about 12 years now, so I was pre-disposed to liking this article even before I read it. (Hint.)

To the writer, ethos means putting yourself into your writing. Here at T(N)LW, shedding the legal duckspeak and putting yourself into your writing is an article of faith. So we’re most pleased to recommend Scott’s article.

Good ways to slim down a brief

If you ever have the need to squeeze an oversized brief under the court's page or word limit, my friend Scott Stolley has some excellent tips for you in this article, which you can also find here.

Scott is a contributor to Texas Appellate Watch, a 3-month-old law blog. If you practice in Texas, you’ll want to follow it.

Judge Lebovits on how to answer interrogatories

I don’t recall any other legal-writing article tackling the topic of Judge Lebovits’s latest: Responding to Interrogatories. So if responding to written discovery is something you do from time to time, you may want to read the article—you may pick up a tip or two.

Kendall Gray's editing techniques

Here is a list of useful editing techniques by Kendall Gray, an appellate lawyer who blogs at The Appellate Record. (Hat tip to our friends at the Legal Writing Prof Blog.)

When to use passive voice

When should passive voice be used? George Gopen can think of five instances. (Hat tip to Stephanie West Allen.)

Christmas in September: The latest J. ALWD has hit the streets.

With all due respect to Scribes, I think that J. ALWD (Journal of the Association of Legal Writing Directors) is the # 1 cutting-edge legal-writing periodical in this country. So it’s always big news here at T(N)LW when the latest issue of J. ALWD hits the streets. Today it’s double-plus-big news. The latest issue has hit the streets, and its name has been changed to better reflect its content: Legal Communication and Rhetoric. So scoot on over to this web page, where you’ll find the table of contents and links to the articles.

(Hat tip to Legal Writing Prof Blog—my kind of people.)

Comma chameleon

Adding or omitting a comma can change a sentence’s meaning. Erik Jensen illustrates the point a short article that you can download here.

Prof. Khan’s compendium of legal-writing resources

If you’re looking for a compendium of legal-writing sources, here’s a good one by Prof. Almas Khan. Download it and tuck it away for future reference.