CTLA — Elizabeth Fashler

CTLA Editor’s Column The Elements of Style

Our chief role as lawyers is to communicate effectively, orally and in writing. This is easier said than done. Good writing is a skill that we practice, and improve upon, over the course of our lives. While I most certainly fail to achieve the goal I set for myself in terms of proficiency, the important thing is to continue striving towards improvement.

I spend a good amount of time every year inducting my juniors into the cult of good writing. It is a benevolent cult, with the aim of elevating the writing of those with whom I work. Our holy book is “The Elements of Style” by William Strunk Jr. and E. B. White of “Charlotte’s Webb” fame. I buy extra copies to distribute. “The Elements of Style” is a precious tome of only a hundred pages. However, packed within these few pages is the foundation of clear and persuasive writing.

I wish to share a smattering of helpful gems from “The Elements of Style”, which are applicable to our daily practices whether we are drafting argument or an email to a client. On brevity, a struggle for most lawyers:1 Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all sentences short or avoid all detail and treat subjects only in outline, but that every word tell. On structure:2 Choose a suitable design and hold to it. A basic structural design underlies every kind of writing. Writers will in part follow this design, in part deviate from it, according to their skills, their needs, and the unexpected events that accompany the act of composition.

Writing, to be effective, must follow closely the thoughts of the writer, but not necessarily in the order in which those thoughts occur. This calls for a scheme of procedure.

In some cases, the best design is no design, as with a love letter, which is simply an outpouring, or with a casual essay, which is a ramble. But in most cases, planning must be a deliberate prelude to writing. The first principle of composition, therefore, is to foresee or determine the shape of what is to come and pursue that shape.

A sonnet is built on a fourteen-line frame, each line containing five feet. Hence, sonneteers know exactly where they are headed, although they may not know how to get there. Most forms of composition are less clearly defined, more flexible, but all have skeletons to which the writer will bring the flesh and the blood. The more clearly the writer perceives the shape, the better are the chances of success. On the active voice, which brings us right back to brevity:3

Use the active voice.

The active voice is usually more direct and vigorous than the passive: I shall always remember my first visit to Boston. This is much better than My first visit to Boston will always be remembered by me.Elizabeth Fashler […] The habitual use of the active voice, however, makes for forcible writing. This is true not only in narrative concerned principally with action but in writing of any kind. Many a tame sentence of description or exposition can be made lively and emphatic by substituting a transitive in the active voice for some such perfunctory expression as there is or could be heard. There were a great number of dead leaves lying on the ground. Note, in the examples above, that when a sentence is made stronger, it usually becomes shorter. Thus, brevity is a by-product of vigor. Dead leaves covered the ground. At dawn the crowing of a rooster could be heard. The cock’s crow came with dawn. The reason he left college was that his health became impaired. Failing health compelled him to leave college.

TTL Canadian Content

Our Canadian contributions in this issue of TTL exemplify good writing, although I can’t say for sure if they own copies of “The Elements of Style”. Canadian content for this issue of includes an article by Jason Lattanzio and Nicolas Pimentel entitled “Friendly Skies No More: The Effort to Combat Coronavirus and Air Rage”, which canvasses mask mandates and civility in the realm of air travel. Eric Machum and Luke Hunter have contributed an article entitled “You say it best, when you say nothing at all: Application of statutory limitations of liability in the face of silence by shippers and carriers for carriage of goods within Canada” which, as the byline indicates, discusses the application of statutory limitations of liability in the face of silence by shippers and carriers for carriage of goods within Canada. Finally, Pui Hong has contributed an article entitled “Autonomous Vehicles and the Trucking Industry in Canada” which canvasses the main issues connected with the emergence of autonomous vehicle technologies.

CTLA Communications Corner

Membership

Are you thinking of joining the CTLA? Has your membership lapsed? Do you have colleagues or friends who might be interested?

Wait no longer! A CTLA membership offers access to continuing legal education and social networking opportunities, most notably at the AGM and Annual Conference held each Fall, as well as receipt of five issues per year of The Transportation Lawyer.

Visit https://ctla.ca/join and click “JOIN OR RENEW” to join CTLA for the first time or renew your membership. February TTL

We are currently soliciting article contributions for the February 2022 edition of TTL. If you are interested in submitting an article for publication in the TTL or on the CTLA website, please contact me at efashler@fasken.com or through the CTLA LinkedIn page.

Endnotes

1 Strunk, William and White, E. B., The Elements of Style, 4th Ed., Allyn & Bacon, 2000, at page 10. 2 Ibid, at page 26. 3 Ibid, at pages 28-29.