the (new) legal writer

Steven Stark on writing to win

Years ago, I bought and enjoyed reading Writing to Win by Steven D. Stark. Besides giving good advice about writing generally, that book also touched on every aspect of legal writing: briefs, discovery, correspondence, memos, contracts, and e-mail.

Steven now has an updated and revised edition of Writing to Win. Why the new edition? Because the world has changed since the first edition was published in 1999. Technology is more pervasive; people get their reading material on computer screens, smart phones, tablets like the iPad, and various other e-readers. These changes in the way readers read require corresponding changes in the way writers write. So Steven has revised and updated his book to help lawyers write more effectively in this new and continually changing age.

Joe Kimble’s latest book

Joseph Kimble has a new book out, Writing for Dollars, Writing to Please. For as long as I can remember, Joe has been a champion for plain language. In this book, he continues that role; he shows what plain language is, debunks the myths about plain language, and collects impressive empirical evidence that plain language saves dollars and makes sense. Joe’s past writings on this topic have been classics; this book promises to be another.

Postscript to the prior post on punctuation

It seems that the photo featured on my last post was doctored. The original magazine editors included the necessary commas. Still, the difference between the original magazine cover and the doctored version shows the importance of those little commas.

Punctuation can make all the difference.

For instance, 

Lose your superstitions about sentence starters

Do you think that there’s some grammatical rule against starting a sentence with a particular word or part of speech? If so, you are misinformed. Any word, any part of speech, can be at the front end of a sentence. Lynn at Business Writing has a little reminder about this, but if you doubt her, let me know and I’ll whack you over the head with Fowler and the King James Bible.