Readers Speak Out

• Publication year: 1997
• Pages: 45
• Citation: Vol. 26 No. 3 Pg. 45

26 Colo.Law. 45 Colorado Lawyer 1997.

1997, March, Pg. 45. Readers Speak Out

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45

Vol. 26, No. 3, Pg. 45

The Colorado Lawyer
March 1997
Vol. 26, No. 3 [Page 45]

Departments
The Scrivener: Modern Legal Writing
Readers Speak Out
by K. K. DuVivier
C 1997 K.K. DuVivier

K.K. DuVivier is a senior instructor of Legal Writing and Appellate Court Advocacy at the University of Colorado School of Law, Boulder

DO YOU HAVE QUESTIONS
ABOUT LEGAL WRITING

K.K. DuVivier will be happy to address them through The Scrivener column. Send your questions to: K.K. DuVivier University of Colorado School of Law, Campus Box 401, Boulder, CO 80309-0401 or through e-mail to: duvivier@spot.colorado.edu.

This month, I am turning the column over to letters from readers. If you have a question or comment to share, please feel free to write or e-mail me at the addresses in the box below. Don't worry, I will ask your permission before using your name.

Spell Checkers

Ron Ball from Williamsburg, Kentucky, forwarded an article about spell checkers by William O. Bertelsman, Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky.1 Judge Bertelsman warns against relying on computer spell checkers. Here are Judge Bertelsman's comments on some excerpts of materials submitted to his court.

"The tenants of the doctrine of last clear chance are. . . ."

It seems the tenet that an attorney should read something before signing it didn't help this writer. [J. Bertelsman]

"I will not aqueous in your demand."

Well, the demand was kind of soggy. [J. Bertelsman]

"The agents sited defendant as he left the cite of the crime and searched for him. He sights cases that the search was without probable cause."

(I swear this is true. Maybe the guy needed a magnifying glass to sight the cases.) [J. Bertelsman]

Prepositions

I end sentences with prepositions in everyday speech, such as, "She knows the address the box was sent to." I am afraid of ending a written sentence with a preposition, however. I change sentences like the above to read, "She knows the address to which the box was sent." This seems to me grammatically correct, but seems awkward; consequently, I am not sure it represents good writing style. What is right?

A reader from Las Vegas, Nevada.

Although most grammar books indicate that a sentence may end with a preposition...