Grammar Grinch

GRAMMAR GRINCH By: Sarah M. Booher

Garza Law Firm, PLLC

A WORD AFTER A WORD AFTER A WORD IS POWER: WRITING ADVICE FROM GREAT NOVELISTS

Any time I am lucky enough to run into Federal Defender Beth Ford, the first thing I ask my fellow bookworm is if she’s read anything good lately.1 Reading is my Tennessee football all year round.

Let’s be honest - I’d much rather be curled up at home reading than at work writing a demand, or a complaint, or a brief. That’s just tedious old legal stuff. Or is it? What can we glean from the magic of fiction that we can carry with us into the workplace reality to make us better written practitioners? What can the “greats” tell us about telling our own legal stories? Turns out, quite a bit.

Plot your story first. – Agatha Christie

For a lot of novelists, figuring out what they’re doing and how to start is the hardest part. The same is generally true for us. Before you put fingers to keyboard or pen to paper, make a plan. Take the time to determine what your most important points are, the best way to organize them, and the best tone to convey them.

Get the big truth first. If you get the big truth, the small truths will accumulate around it. Let them be magnetized to it, drawn to it, and then cling to it. - Ray Bradbury

Bradbury believed it was difficult to keep the passion for a budding novel alive long enough to finish it, so you had to get in there and immediately find your truth and let everything else fall in around it. Many of our legal writing professors taught this concept as “start with our best argument.” Either way, don’t waste time. Respect your readers (especially your judges) enough to get straight to the point.

If a sentence, no matter how excellent, does not illuminate your subject in some new and useful way, scratch it out. – Kurt Vonnegut

Make sure each and every word you write in your legal documents actively contributes to building or strengthening your points. Read every sentence of your document independently and ask yourself why it is there. Does it add value? If it doesn’t, it’s just verbal and/or legal fidgeting that should be deleted.

The first thing I do in the morning is brush my teeth and sharpen my tongue. – Dorothy Parker

My legal writing professor used to ask students in the margins of their poor or average papers if they liked their tea tepid, too. In other words, stop using passive voice, make more accurate word choices, and confidently state and support your position. After all, we’re here to win, and you don’t have to be disrespectful to have a sharp tongue!

What is writing? Telepathy, of course. - Stephen King

Huh? <scratches head> What King is getting at here is that the words on the page are not what’s ultimately and supremely important. What’s important is that we are trying to get ideas from our head into someone else’s head, and that transfer is happening across time, experience, and nuance. Delete the adjectives and you’ll have the facts. – Harper Lee

Be cognizant not only of your opponent’s embellishments, but of your own, too. Any given exaggeration is not necessarily a bad thing, but you might be using it to cover up a weakness in your story. It might also give you a reputation amongst your peers as having a flair for the dramatic. Consider taking a better approach than writing “fluffy facts”. Own it up front, state it subtly and toward the end of your argument, or pair/substitute it with a less vulnerable fact.

Don’t tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass. – Anton Checkhov

If you never had a professor underline a sentence on an essay you submitted with “conclusory” written in the margin beside it, did you even go to law school? Effective written advocacy shows the reader why your argument prevails. Often, the supporting details that are obscured by conclusory statements are key details that aren’t elicited until a motion hearing that would have otherwise been avoidable. Including the “how” and “why” in your legal writing will make you a more effective and efficient advocate.

Language can never live up to life once and for all. Nor should it. Language can never “pin down” slavery, genocide, war. Nor should it yearn for the arrogance to be able to do so. Its force, its felicity is in its reach toward the ineffable. – Toni Morrison

Harnessing the power of the written word is inextricably intertwined with appreciating its inherent failures. Words don’t always do justice and that’s a hard truth for a profession so reliant upon them. However, being cognizant of this reality allows the legal writer to be authentic. Grandiose, sweeping language has a place, but it’s generally the dramatic stage. Being a powerful written advocate means tempering force with authenticity.

Never use a long word when a short one will do. – George Orwell

If I had a ten-dollar bill for every time one of my professors told me to stop using ten-dollar words, I’d be on vacation right now. Although we want our writing to be intelligent and polished, sesquipedalian2 writing can often come across as stuffy and condescending. Arguments can be made most effectively when our word choices are straightforward and concise.

In summary, effective writing is a discipline in mindfulness. For attorneys, this means mindfulness in our communication and advocacy. While perspectives on writing may vary across the legal field, we can all agree that it is a necessary tool in our professional toolbox, and one worth being intentional with regarding growth and improvement.

1 Beth, if you’re reading this, my most recent favorites are Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead and Donuts and Other Proclamations of Love by Jared Reck. 2 See what I did there?