Table Of Content

Legal Writing in Plain English OnWriting,Editing,andPublishing JacquesBarzun TricksoftheTrade HowardS.Becker WritingforSocialScientists HowardS.Becker TheCraftofTranslation JohnBiguenetandRainerSchulte,editors TheCraftofResearch WayneC.Booth,GregoryG.Colomb,andJosephM.Williams GlossaryofTypesettingTerms RichardEckersley,RichardAngstadt,CharlesM.Ellerston, RichardHendel,NaomiB.Pascal,andAnitaWalkerScott WritingEthnographicFieldnotes RobertM.Emerson,RachelI.Fretz,andLindaL.Shaw GettingItPublished WilliamGermano APoet’sGuidetoPoetry MaryKinzie MappingItOut MarkMonmonier IndexingBooks NancyC.Mulvany GettingintoPrint WalterW.Powell AManualforWritersofTermPapers,Theses,andDissertations KateL.Turabian TalesoftheField JohnVanMaanen Style JosephM.Williams AHandbookofBiologicalIllustration FrancesW.Zweifel ChicagoGuideforPreparingElectronicManuscripts PreparedbytheStaffoftheUniversityofChicagoPress Bryan A. Garner Legal Writing in Plain English A Text with Exercises The University of Chicago Press ChicagoandLondon BryanA.Garner,presidentofLawProse,Inc.,conductswritinganddrafting seminarsforlawyersandjudgesaroundthecountry.HealsoteachesatSouthern MethodistUniversitySchoolofLawandhaswrittenwidelyontheEnglish languageandlegalstyle. TheUniversityofChicagoPress,Chicago60637 TheUniversityofChicagoPress,Ltd.,London (cid:1)2001byBryanA.Garner Allrightsreserved.Published2001 PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 1 2 3 4 5 ISBN:0-226-28417-4(cloth) ISBN:0-226-28418-2(paper) ISBN:0-226-28419-0(instructor’smanual) LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Garner,BryanA. LegalwritinginplainEnglish:atextwithexercises/BryanA. Garner. p. cm.—(Chicagoguidestowriting,editing,andpublishing) ISBN0-226-28417-4(cloth:alk.paper)—ISBN0-226-28418-2(paper: alk.paper)—ISBN0-226-28419-0(instructor’smanual:alk.paper) 1.Legalcomposition. I.Title. II.Series. KF250.G373 2001 808(cid:1).06634—dc21 00-010665 Excerptsfrompreviouslypublishedbooksarereprintedbypermissionofthe publishers.Thetextonpage69originallyappearedinRichardA.Posner, ProblemsofJurisprudence464(1990),(cid:1)HarvardUniversityPress.Thetext onpage70originallyappearedinRonaldDworkin,AMatterofPrinciple385 (1985),(cid:1)HarvardUniversityPress. ExercisesarealsoavailablefordownloadingfromtheUniversityofChicago Presswebsiteatwww.press-pubs.uchicago.edu/garner. oThepaperusedinthispublicationmeetstheminimumrequirementsofthe AmericanNationalStandardforInformationSciences—PermanenceofPaperfor PrintedLibraryMaterials,ANSIZ39.48-1992. OtherbookswrittenoreditedbyBryanA.Garner ADictionaryofModernLegalUsage ADictionaryofModernAmericanUsage Black’sLawDictionary(7thed.,abridgeded.,andpocketed.) TheOxfordDictionaryofAmericanUsageandStyle TheWinningBrief:100TipsforPersuasiveBriefinginTrialand AppellateCourts TheElementsofLegalStyle GuidelinesforDraftingandEditingCourtRules SecuritiesDisclosureinPlainEnglish AHandbookofBasicLawTerms AHandbookofBusinessLawTerms AHandbookofCriminalLawTerms AHandbookofFamilyLawTerms Texas,OurTexas:ReminiscencesoftheUniversity For Alexandra contents Preface xiii Introduction xvii part one: Principles for All Legal Writing 1 1. FramingYourThoughts 3 §1. Havesomethingtosay—andthinkitthrough. 3 §2. Formaximalefficiency,planyourwritingprojects.Try nonlinearoutlining. 5 §3. Orderyourmaterialinalogicalsequence.Usechronologywhen presentingfacts.Keeprelatedmaterialtogether. 10 §4. Dividethedocumentintosections,anddividesectionsinto smallerpartsasneeded.Useinformativeheadingsforthe sectionsandsubsections. 14 2. PhrasingYourSentences 17 §5. Omitneedlesswords. 17 §6. Keepyouraveragesentencelengthtoabout20words. 19 §7. Keepthesubject,theverb,andtheobjecttogether—toward thebeginningofthesentence. 23 §8. Prefertheactivevoiceoverthepassive. 24 §9. Useparallelphrasingforparallelideas. 28 §10. Avoidmultiplenegatives. 30 §11. Endsentencesemphatically. 31 3. ChoosingYourWords 34 §12. Learntodetestsimplifiablejargon. 34 §13. Usestrong,preciseverbs.Minimizeis,are,was,andwere. 37 §14. Turn-ionwordsintoverbswhenyoucan. 38 §15. Simplifywordyphrases.Watchoutforof. 40 §16. Avoiddoubletsandtriplets. 43 §17. Refertopeopleandcompaniesbyname. 44 §18. Don’thabituallyuseparentheticalshorthandnames.Usethem onlywhenyoureallyneedthem. 45 §19. Shunnewfangledacronyms. 47 §20. Makeeverythingyouwritespeakable. 48 ix