SC Lawyer, July 2004, #7. The Scrivener July 2004 Judge Bell's top ten rules of writing Part Two.

• Author: By Scott Mo\xEFse

South Carolina Lawyer

2004.

SC Lawyer, July 2004, #7.

The Scrivener July 2004 Judge Bell's top ten rules of writing Part Two

South Carolina LawyerJuly 2004The Scrivener July 2004 Judge Bell's top ten rules of writing Part TwoBy Scott MoïseThe last column began with the first four of Judge Randall T. Bell's Top Ten Rules of Writing.

The remaining rules are as follows:

RULE #5: Place the dispositive unit of discourse in the position of emphasis, i.e. beginning or end, not middle.

The main idea of a sentence, paragraph, or brief should be at the beginning or end because those are the positions of greatest force. Judge Bell's strong preference was for the main idea to come at the end of the sentence. Do not bury the main idea in the middle. Judge Bell advised writers first to identify the dispositive fact or idea and then build the unit of discourse around it. Next, identify the dispositive action and ask, "Who is the actor?" The actor should be the topic of the sentence, and the verb should express the dispositive action.

The judge also counseled writers not to surrender the end of the sentence to a weak word. He considered prepositions, adverbs, and adjectives as "weak" and verbs, nouns, nominal verbs or adjectives, and prepositional phrases centered on nominal verbs and adjectives as "strong."

Each of the following sentences is correct, but the writer's primary intent is to convey that Judge Bell was elected to both of the state's appellate courts. Based on that intent, the first sentence is less desirable, because the dispositive unit of discourse is diminished by its location within the sentence.

POOR: Judge Randall Bell, who served on the Court of Appeals for eleven years and was then elected to the South Carolina Supreme Court, passed away at only 49 years old.

BETTER: Judge Randall Bell, who passed away at only 49 years old, served on the Court of Appeals for eleven years and was then elected to the South Carolina Supreme Court.

RULE #6: Order the elements of discourse from old to new, short to long, simple to complex.

This rule-which applies to sentences, paragraphs, arguments, memoranda, and briefs-calls for a logical order so that writing will flow or build to a climax. Judge Bell generally imposed this rule on himself and required his clerks to follow these sequences of time, length, and complexity because they...