This concise paperback focuses on the nuances of legal writing style and provides novice legal writers with the skills they need to polish their writing. Guide to Legal Writing Style, Fourth Edition, intended as an ancillary to any basic legal writing text, expands what students learn in their first-year courses by providing additional techniques and style tips that will help make their writing more precise, readable and elegant.
This highly regarded paperback, specifically directed at legal writers, offers
crisp, pointed advice written in a personal and humorous style
lucid organization that helps students find the information they need most, including practice with basic skills and helpful advice on organization, sentence structure, word choice, punctuation, and formatting
an emphasis on legal ethics throughout, with most of the examples and exercises focusing on ethical issues
a chapter on organization that compares and contrasts undergraduate terms and goals with those expected by a legal audience
a guide that helps students guard against plagiarism
short, end-of-chapter exercises, with the answers at the back of the book, that strengthen skills and provide opportunities for self-testing
Special features in the Fourth Edition include:
an updated interactive CD-ROM with multiple exercises to reinforce the materials in the book, which includes updated and expanded tests of basic skills and click-on answers and explanations
a new chapter testing common errors in professional writing, with explanations as well as succinct answers
new checklists that reinforce essential advice of each chapter
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Experienced legal writing scholar and language expert Terri LeClercq knows that bad grammar and clumsy writing cost attorneys both money and embarrassment. To help her students and clients avoid those consequences, she emphasizes the path to success--plain, straightforward writing. She taught both writing and editing at the University of Texas School of Law for 23 years encouraging students to begrammatically correct,well organized, and free of ambiguities. Legal ambiguities bring many attorneys to her door. Dr. LeClercq works with both plaintiff and defense to unravel the complex language of statutes, contracts, cases, and regulations. First operating independently from the client, she analyzes the language and applies the appropriate rules of English syntax. Clients call on her to turn briefs into persuasive arguments and to reorganize informational documents with a clear design so that readers can easily find what they need. She edited, for instance, an international service agreement covering ships entering U. S. territorial waters; she was also editor of the Federal Judiciary Center#39;s Model Notices for class-action lawsuits. In addition to leading seminars, teaching, and consulting, Dr. LeClercq has published over one hundred articles and two major texts that focus on plain language in legal writing. These articles and books offer practical advice for avoiding those common mistakes that writers make while tackling the complexities of the law.