Writing Matters
| Publication year | 2020 |
| Pages | 0058 |
| Citation | Vol. 26 No. 3 Pg. 0058 |
Tips to Continue to Improve Your Legal Writing in the New Year
Whether you are a recent graduate or a lawyer with 30 years of experience, you can and should continue to improve your legal writing in 2021.
BY DAVID HRICIK AND KAREN J. SNEDDON
As the year 2020 draws to a close, we are reflecting upon a year of unexpected challenges, stress and distress. The year has required everyone to respond and adapt to previously unanticipated circumstances in both our personal and professional lives. In the professional world, videoconferencing became a key mode of communication. We learned that to effectively communicate with clients, colleagues, counsel and courts we needed to silence flushing toilets and use a good headset with microphone— and to remember to unmute ourselves! We also had to gain proficiency in "screen writing" by focusing on how the reader will view our text on devices of different sizes.
Hopefully, next year will not be full of the same challenges and hardships, and the murder hornets will not decide to finally join us. But this year's hardships made us realize we can adapt to new circumstances and learn to communicate effectively in them. This installment of "Writing Matters" shares five tips on how to continue to improve your legal writing for whatever may come next year.
1 Read More and Read More Diverse Texts
Reading and writing require use of different parts of the brain. Even so, reading can improve writing (and vice versa). When we read, we evaluate the choices of other writers. We observe choices about sentence constructions, paragraph development and word choice.
So, read more, and read more diversely. Set aside at least 15 minutes a day to read something that you would not otherwise read because reading texts other than those lawyers typically create will expose you to a greater range of possibilities for your legal writing. When you write, you can draw upon those materials and the variety they brought for inspiration.
Reading about writing also helps. So below are some suggestions on books about legal writing that you may find of interest:
• Deborah L. Borman, A Short & Happy Guide to Legal Writing (2019)• Catherine J. Cameron & Lance N. Long, The Science Behind the Art of Legal Writing (2d ed. 2019).
• Matthew Butterick, Typography for Lawyers: Essential Tools for Polished & Persuasive Documents (2d ed. 2018).• Ross...
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