For a list of other University of Chicago Press law and law degrees, check out our online law and legal studies catalog. Another example from criminal law is the newspaper headline „Juvenile Court Should Try to Shoot Accused.“ In legal English, „try“ means „put on trial“, but the meaning of „try“ in everyday English is „attentted“, which would mean that the court tried to shoot the accused who was on trial. The A to Z to the alternative words of The Plain English Campaign. This gives you the „simple English“ version of more formal words. You can also use it upside down; If you`re writing to another lawyer, this guide can help you find more formal words. In Legal Writing in Plain English, Bryan Garner offers lawyers sound advice and practical tools to improve their written work. It teaches legal writers how to organize ideas, create and refine prose, and improve their editing skills. Essentially, it teaches righteous thinking – a skill inextricably linked to good writing. Legal English still uses many formal adverbs of reference such as „in“, which means „in this document“. Other examples are „hereto“ and hierby. While these can cause difficulties for the layman, when used correctly, these adverbs will help the reader navigate the text, so familiarize yourself with the formal adverbs used in legal documents and don`t be tempted to replace them with other words. To impose a legal obligation, use „must“.

To predict future actions, use „will.“ DO NOT SAY: Let the governor approve it. SAY: The governor must approve it. [Commitment] OR: The governor will approve it. [Future actions] 4. Be direct. Speak directly to your readers. Enjoy the imperative mood. Regulations are suitable for this style, especially procedures, instructions, and to-do lists. The franchise avoids the liability:SAY: Sign all copies.

SAY: Attach a copy of your W-2 to your return. This style results in shorter, sharper and easier to understand procedures. 5. Use the present tense. A regulation with continuing effect refers to when you apply it, not when you write it or when it comes into force. For this reason, you should write regulations in the present tense. By drawing in the present tense, you avoid complicated and cumbersome verbal forms. DON`T: The fine for driving without a licence is $10.00. SAY: The fine for driving without a licence is $10.00. 6.

Write positively. If you can express an idea positively or negatively, express it positively. DO NOT SAY: The governor cannot appoint persons other than those qualified by the Human Resources Agency. SAY: The governor must appoint a qualified person by the Human Resources Agency. A negative statement can be clear. Use it when you warn the reader. DON`T WALKDON`T SMOKE But avoid multiple negatives in a sentence. DON`T SAY: A demonstration project will not be approved until all the requirements of the application are met. SAY: A demonstration project will only be approved if the applicant meets all requirements. It is better to express even a negative in a positive form.

Get a good legal dictionary, such as the Oxford Dictionary of Law. Use (no) contractions in formal legal letters. Then you`ve come to the right place. Our English courses for lawyers are specifically designed to help you write in a legal context and cover everything in this blog post and much more. Our trainers are specialist English trainers with expertise in English for law, and they include input from lawyers. After the course, you will feel more comfortable writing with legal English. Avoid lawyers. One of my law professors told me that if you learned the word in law school, don`t use it in your letter. While this is an exaggeration – sometimes we have to write a „summary judgment request“ – the mood is solid. Legal isms, or legal language, „give the letter a legal smell, but they have little to no legal substance,“ Wydick said. Non-lawyers may not understand them, and they add little or no meaning to the sentence. How do you learn the lessons of Wydick? Exercise.

Wydick included exercises in each chapter to reinforce his lessons. Sit back and take time to do Wydick`s exercises regularly. Sometimes it can be difficult to find mistakes in our own writing. If you find this to be the case, edit someone else`s work. Look for some of the errors described above and elsewhere in Wydick`s book. His friendship with writer David Foster Wallace is described in Quack This Way: David Foster Wallace and Bryan A. Garner Talk Language and Writing (2013). His friendship and writing partnership with Justice Antonin Scalia is described in the memoir Nino and Me: My Unusual Friendship with Justice Antonin Scalia (2018). 19. Write short sentences.

Readable sentences are simple, active, affirmative and declarative. The more a sentence deviates from this structure, the more difficult it is to understand. Long sentences are a fundamental weakness of legal documents. Legal documents often contain conditions that result in complex sentences with many clauses. The more complex the sentence, the more likely it will be to determine the intended meaning of the sentence. Our extensive seminar focuses on the principles that every legal writer must master in order to produce concise, down-to-earth, and powerful prose. The day is aimed at lawyers, judges, jurists, law students and paralegals and focuses on sound writing tips and practical tools. The goal is essentially to teach righteous thinking through learning: Wydick`s first and probably most important piece of advice is to „leave out excess words.“ Cutting the fat out of your writing is an important first step to writing well. While the phrase is not exclusively Wydick`s idea (think „omitting unnecessary words“ by Strunk and White), it takes on additional meaning in the legal environment. In addition to creating clear and concise text for your clients and judges, omitting excess words makes it easier for you to stick to word counts or page limits. The beauty of Wydick`s book is that it offers concrete ways to identify and remove excess words.

These include: 15. Use specific words. Government writings often deal with abstract subjects. But abstract words can be vague and open to different interpretations. Put the instructions in simple, concrete words. The A to Z Guide to Legal Sentences contains clear definitions of many English legal words and phrases. Richard Wydick (1937-2016), one of the most influential voices for clear writing, is best known for his short book Plain English for Lawyers (Carolina Academic Press, 6th edition 2019). Wydick set out to write something for lawyers that matched Strunk and White`s classic, The Elements of Style.

His book has been relevant and popular for over 40 years. 17. Avoid nominal sandwiches. Administrative writing uses too many groups of names – groups of names that are „joined“. Avoid these confusing constructions by using more prepositions. DON`T SAY: Development of protective procedures for underground workers. SAY: Development of underground procedures to protect the safety of miners. OR MORE LIKELY: Development of procedures to protect the safety of workers in underground mines. The meaning becomes clearer when that four-word sandwich is broken. 18. Do not use gender-specific terminology. Avoid gender-specific job title: 7.

Avoid using exceptions. If possible, specify a rule or category directly, rather than describing the rule or category by specifying its exceptions. DON`T SAY: All people, except those over the age of 18, must do so. SAY: Anyone under the age of 18 must do so. However, you can use an exception if it avoids a long and tedious list or detailed description. If you are using an exception, first specify the rule or category, and then specify the exception. DON`T SAY: Alabama, Alaska,. and Wyoming (a list of 47 states) must ration.

SAY: All states except Texas, New Mexico and Arizona must ration. (Note that the „each state“ category is set first, and then exceptions are specified.) 8. Avoid divided infinitives. The shared infinitive offends many readers, so avoid it if you can. DON`T SAY: Make sure you respond to the invitation promptly. SAY: Make sure you respond to the invitation immediately. or SAY: Make sure you respond to the invitation immediately. 9. Use the noun in the singular instead of the plural noun. As far as your meaning allows, use a singular noun instead of a plural noun. You avoid the problem of whether the rule applies separately to each member of a class or collectively to the class as a whole. DON`T: The security guard will issue security badges to employees working in buildings D and E.

SAY: The security guard issues a security badge to every employee who works in Building D and every employee who works in Building E. Unless you mean that the safety officer issues a security pass to each employee who works in both Building D and Building E. (There are other possible meanings.) 10. Be consistent. Don`t use different words to mean the same things. Variation for the sake of variation has no place in the drafting of regulations.