Legal Writing

Language Log and Canadian Dept of Justice Endorse Singular "They"

Posted on April 13, 2008
Read the Language Log post here.

"L" Is for Lists

Posted on April 08, 2008
Wizard Lists Lists can make text items easy to read. Lists are a visual way to focus information. Review your draft for suitable lists embedded in the text.The standard rule is that the items listed must be similar in nature, parallel in grammatical form and of equal importance...

Kindly for "K"

Posted on April 03, 2008
Be kind to others. Be considerate of your readers.So when you write, take care to include all the dates, facts, and figures that the person may need to handle your query or request or instruction.In business letters, include everybody's file reference numbers if you have them...

Humour at work, Workopolis

Posted on March 31, 2008
Workopolis' Humour Classification Report:This year Workopolis provides information about who is doing the jokingand how to do humour right this April Fool's Day. - Sarcastic/witty jokester: This workplace comedian may appear to have it easy with a punch line for every situation, but humour isn't always the right solution...

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"Just" for "J" Week

Posted on March 27, 2008
Well, lucky for me that Seth Godin blogged about writing this week and gave me my inspiration. Here is his full post: Sort of, just and Donald TrumpI noticed a little while ago that I was using the word "just" and the phrase "sort of" in my writing. All the time, in fact...

"I" Is for Impact

Posted on March 23, 2008
I missed doing the ABCs Wednesday posting because I was in Thunder Bay Ontario, engaged in a two-day training session. But here comes the "I" for impact.The Nishnawbe-Aski Police Services invited the Literacy and Policing project to deliver our program on how low literacy, amongst victims, witnesses, and accused persons, impacts the criminal justice system...

Blogging and Meetings. What is the connect?

Posted on March 16, 2008
Blogging as a phenomena is old enough to have developed its own rules of behaviour.Well, it is nice that some standards have developed, but I am not happy about all the expectations.Let me digress.About 10 years ago, I offered to help out a committee of a professional association I belonged to at the time...

Haiku for the Week of "H"

Posted on March 14, 2008
A little poetry and a picture for your week-end enjoyment.

Wednesday ABCs: Higher Order Concerns

Posted on March 12, 2008
Purdue University's Online Writing Lab offers a list of Higher Order Concerns to guide your writing work. These concerns resemble a list of plain language guidelines. They certainly help put into perspective the lower order concerns.

Basic Techniques for Building Rapport

Posted on March 10, 2008
Dummies UK site (click on title) provides the article below, adapted from the book, Neurolinguistics for Dummies. Seven quick ways to sharpen your rapportFor starters, try some immediate ways to begin building rapport: * Take a genuine interest in getting to know what's important to the other person...

"G" is for Grammar

Posted on March 05, 2008
Wonderful coincidence: My "G" day is also U.S. National Grammar Day! Stuart Froman argues at In Search Of in favor of a National Clarity Day: "Perfect grammar?whether written or spoken?never solves a problem (except the problem of imperfect grammar )...

More for "F" Week

Posted on March 03, 2008
from the blogThe Party of the First PartWord of the WeekBy Adam FreedmanFighting Words DoctrineThe First Amendment doctrine that holds that certain utterances are not constitutionally protected as free speech if they are "inherently likely to provoke a violent response from the audience" (Black's)...

Framing Your Message

Posted on February 29, 2008
Framing Your MessageHelp your reader get the picture... Make your communication more effective but paying attention to more than vocabulary and grammar. By filtering out distractions and barriers to effective communication, some writing techniques ensure that your message is received as sent...

"F" is for links

Posted on February 28, 2008
F is for lazy? Here a some links.Foreign"The language of law must not be foreign to the ears of those who are to obey it." - Judge Learned Handthanks to the legal writing prof FeedbackFeedback technique: Stop, Start, Continuefrom Genuine Curiosity Giving & Receiving Feedbackfrom Leadership for Lawyers

Employee Engagement

Posted on February 26, 2008
Another "E" post before the week is gone... I want to share this post from David Zinger--mostly for the poem by Moshe Safdie!Employee Engagement Extra: Making Projects Unique By David Zinger on Employee Engagement Welcome to the Employee Engagement Extra...

E is for efficient, effective, economical writing

Posted on February 20, 2008
Plain language techniques can help you get the message through efficiently and effectively. It takes effort but it?s worth it. Poorly written documents contribute to inefficiencies, management problems, higher administrative costs, and poor public relations...

D is for drafting, legal drafting

Posted on February 12, 2008
What is legal drafting? It involves writing that deals with rights and responsibilities in the form of contracts, deeds, and such. Legislative drafting is a segment of it that deals with writing laws.Wayne Schiess, on his blog in 2005, said legal drafting is an independent area of expertise [http://www...

Here's a thought

Posted on February 08, 2008
from the Christian Monitor and the Washington PostWe're on information overload Kids can't focus these days, and neither can I. By Thomas Washington from the February 6, 2008 edition As a school librarian, I wind up reading all sorts of damning reports on students' lack of reading skills...

C is for Consent

Posted on February 06, 2008
The Wall Street Journal report "The Informed Patient" starts with this unsurprising info:"Informed consent may be the biggest misnomer in medicine: Studies show that most patients don't read the forms they sign before undergoing surgery or medical treatment...

B is for Boilerplate

Posted on January 30, 2008
Everybody wants to use shortcuts whenever possible. So boilerplate came to be to allow lawyers (and other professions, I presume) to save time when producing legal documents. In other fields, one might have "standard forms" or "precedents" or form letters, and so on...

Write Like Seth

Posted on January 29, 2008
If Seth Godin can translate from legalese, anyone can do it. Check out his rewrite of a florist's legal notice.

In Honor of Lego's 50th Anniversay

Posted on January 28, 2008
The legal description: A rectilinear array of uniform, smooth-sided, flat-topped, cylindrical, co-planar protuberances, the proportions of height, diameter and center-to-center spacing of which are approximately 2 : 5 : 8. Where there is more than one row of protuberances, they are arranged in mutually orthogonal rows and columns...

Sunday Blues

Posted on January 27, 2008
Starting a new tradition of weekend entertainment posts:Visit MySpaceTV for Randall Crow's Rocking Blues Bandhttp://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&VideoID=26909457

Weekly ABCs

Posted on January 23, 2008
I need somebody to kick me in the behind to get me to post to this blog.My sister has done it (metaphorically).She has participated in a group project to post to one's own blog every Wednesday on a subject arising from the weekly letter of the alphabet...

Wishing You All Success in 2008

Posted on December 31, 2007
SuccessTo laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived...

A few useful posts from 2007

Posted on December 30, 2007
Writing to Control Center Stage Control the actors and the story by controlling the point of view? Don't assume common knowledge Some people face their biggest problem with communication when sharing new information with people they know well? Diversity in Communication vs Universality For a framework?, there is a movement called Universal Design? Universal design is the design of products and environments to be usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adaptation or specialized design? Civility We (plain language advocates) always advise that you avoid negative sentence constructions and seek the positive form of your message...

Now, Be Civil

Posted on December 28, 2007

How to make sense of nonsense

Posted on December 22, 2007
First, this from Texas: Say What?!A weblog of classic legal humor from U.S. District Judge Jerry Buchme July 2004 - The Winner: Most Confusing Document TitlePaul J. Van Osselaer of Austin (Van Osselaer, Cronin & Buchanan) and Robert Slovak of Dallas (Gardere Wynne Sewell) ? who are opposing counsel in a case on my docket ? jointly submitted the following:?Paul Van Osselaer of Austin ? was hoping that the alternative relief would be granted just to figure out what is going on...

Beware the AutoAntonym

Posted on December 22, 2007
Today's post is inspired by a recent Word of the Day from dictionary.comWord of the Day ArchiveWednesday December 19, 2007discursive \dis-KUR-siv\, adjective: 1. Passing from one topic to another; ranging over a wide field; digressive; rambling.2. Utilizing, marked by, or based on analytical reasoning -- contrasted with intuitive...

Remember you have readers, not just viewers

Posted on December 18, 2007
I wan to share this report form the Publicity Hound:Thanks to Publicity Hound Meryl K. Evans for reminding us not to use YouTube or podcasting as a replacement for any written content we currently provide."If you do, you could neglect a small but important audience-- those with disabilities...

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