the (new) legal writer

Some thoughts about “FYYFF” inspired by Rising Tide 4 (#rt4 for Twitter)

A few days ago, I attended Rising Tide 4, a wonderful conclave of New Orleans bloggers and others interested in the future of our beautiful and complex city. Near the end of the day, the organizers bestowed the Ashley Morris award for excellence in blogging. Ashley died a year ago April. Besides being one hell of a blogger, he was a friend to just about everyone else who took up the blogging hobby, including me. I still have a little bottle of absinthe that he gave me for my birthday in 2007. One of these days, I’ll make a Sazerac with it. A real Sazerac.

Anyway, Ashley’s most famous post gave birth to a linguistically interesting phenomenon; hence this post on t(n)lw. This phenomenon is usually referred to by the initials “FYYFF,” the first letters of each word in an imperative-mood sentence. At RT4, after the presentation of the Ashley Morris award, the master of ceremonies reminded the audience of “FYYFF” and invited one and all to shout out the words. No one had to be told what the words were, because we all knew them by heart:

“Fuck you, you fucking fucks!”

My! How cathartic that shout-out was! But I’m not here to talk about the catharsis. I’m here to talk about how interesting that sentence is linguistically. Just five words total, with three being variations of fuck. And we see those variations of fuck in three grammatical structures: an imperative-mood verb, a participial adjective, and a noun.

Call it cursing a blue streak if you like. I call it linguistic genius.

Plain-language quotation of the day

“It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by men of their own choice if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood.” —James Madison.

Graffiti

Mark Liberman at Language Log spotted this gem. It’s from The Rut, where you’ll find many more wonderful cartoons.

Tip of the day

Today’s writing tip, spotted by Evan Schaeffer, comes from a letter by Raymond Carver to his daughter:

When something feels complex or complicated to you, write it out carefully and thoughtfully, several different times if necessary, until it flows smoothly and expresses exactly what you want it to communicate and nothing else.

Bryan Garner hits the road

In September and October, Bryan Garner is hitting the road with three CLE seminars: Advanced Legal Writing & Editing, Ethical Communications for Lawyers, and Advanced Legal Drafting. Bryan knows his stuff, and he presents it as well as anyone I’ve ever seen. Here’s a rundown of the stops on his tour:

• Phoenix: Sept. 1 (ALW&E and ECL) and Sept. 2 (ALD)
• Denver: Sept. 14 (ALW&E)
• Atlanta: Sept. 17 (ALW&E and ECL) and Sept. 18 (ALD)
• Portland, OR: Sept. 21 (ALW&E)
• Seattle: Sept. 22 (ALW&E and ECL) and Sept. 23 (ALD)
• San Diego: Sept. 28 (ALW&E)
• Los Angeles: Sept. 29 (ALW&E and ECL) and Sept. 30 (ALD)
• Sacramento: Oct. 7 (ALW&E)
• San Francisco: Oct. 8 (ALW&E and ECL) and Oct. 9 (ALD)
• New Orleans: Oct. 13 (ALW&E)

To download the brochure, click here. To register on-line, click on the seminar links above.

Make it flow

What’s the secret to making your writing flow? Actually it’s no secret at all. Taylor explains at Men With Pens. (Hat tip to the [non]billable hour.)

Cover yours

If you write for law-review publication, then there’s one piece of ancillary writing you need to get right: your cover letter to the articles editor. For some advice on that topic, read this post by Lawrence Cunningham at Concurring Opinions. (Is it just me, or does Lawrence resemble Russell Crowe?)

     Cunningham                   Crowe