the (new) legal writer

Tools, not rules

Every craftsman needs proper tools. If your craft is writing, then Roy Peter Clark's Writing Tools belongs in your toolbox. This is so whether you're a blogger, a briefwriter, a newspaper reporter or columnist, or even an aspiring or accomplished novelist.

Unlike many other books about writing, this one contains tools, not rules. As Clark says in the introduction, the tools "work outside the territory of right and wrong, and inside the land of cause and effect." The 50 tools are divided into four categories:

1. Nuts and bolts: strategies for making meaning at the word, sentence, and paragraph level.
2. Special effects: tools of economy, clarity, originality, and persuasion.
3. Blueprints: ways of organizing and building stories and reports.
4. Useful habits: routines for living a life of productive writing.

You can find a quick list of the tools by clicking here. For elaboration on each, buy the book. And read Writing Tools: The Blog, where, three times a week, Clark offers a new tool or an example of or variation on one of the original 50.

Bad Language

Matthew Stibbe, a professional freelance writer, shares his knowledge of writing on his blog, Bad Language. Topics include how to write, tools for writing, and writing for the web. As you'll see from his blog writing, he's good at what he does.

Ceely's Modern Usage

Please join me in welcoming Ceely's Modern Usage to the legal-writing blogroll. According to Ceely's first entry, its goal is to "post on the English language. Whatever ticks us off, whatever we find interesting, whatever we think people need to know." It's written by Alexandra, "a collector of 19th century textbooks, a former writing teacher, and an English language enthusiast," and Craig, "a writer and English major who has been considered a leading storm trooper in the war against bad grammar." My kind of people. If they're your kind too, then check out their blog.

Adams Drafting

Please join me in welcoming Adams Drafting to the blogroll. It's written by Ken Adams, a scholar in the art of drafting contracts. Here's what Ken hopes to deliver on his blog:

[The blog] has a specific function. Even after a couple of books and a dozen articles, I still have lots to write about. I’ll continue to use articles to lay out my thoughts on bigger topics, but that leaves plenty of tricky smaller issues of contract language. The blog will provide an incentive for me to actually tackle them, rather than, say, procrastinate until deadlines loom for the next edition of my ABA book “A Manual of Style for Contract Drafting” (which I’ll often be referring to as “MSCD”).

So visit Ken's blog, bump up his stat counters, and give him some added incentive to continue. And when you visit, don't miss his articles page.

Research & Writing Blog, by Susan McDonald

Susan McDonald is a Tennessee attorney. As a graduate of Vanderbilt University and Ole Miss Law School, she has impeccable southern credentials. She practices solo as a legal research and writing specialist, and on her Research & Writing Blog, offers tips and information to help other lawyers improve their writing.

Business Writing

Business Writing is a terrific-looking blog by Lynn Gaertner-Johnson. It's full of useful information for anyone who writes anything on the job — memos, correspondence, e-mail, you name it. And it's written by someone who knows her stuff. Lynn is also proprietor of Syntax Training, through which she teaches business people how to write.

You Don't Say: Language and Usage

John McIntyre looks at issues of language and writing, particularly grammar and usage, as they come up in the Baltimore Sun's reporting. John is the Sun's assistant managing editor for the copy desk, a past president of the American Copy Editors Society, and an adjunct instructor in journalism at Loyola College of Maryland. This Web log

Grammar Hell

Grammar problems, style problems, bad writing, and more. The tag line: "Help end brutal assaults on language."

Legal Writing Prof Blog

Law professors Nancy Soonpa and Sue Liemer write about teaching legal writing.

Writing, Clear and Simple

"The writing blog for non-writers. (Writers are welcome, too.)" By Roy Jacobsen.