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CAREER COUNSELOR’S CORNER
Write This Way [Jennifer Birn] Putting words on paper: A lawyer’s guide
A diligent young lawyer -- you, for example
anyone else.
the final product should be.
-- can spend weeks researching a client issue. The customary product of that effort is,
A few other ways to simplify your work:
3 ORIGINALITY WINS The Internet has
of course, a memo or document. A concise
Use monosyllabic words at least 60 percent
made it tempting-and easy-to pull a docu-
and clear summation of your findings. The
of the time, says C. Edward Good, a coun-
ment from a brief bank and model yours
problem is, law school trained you to do the
sel and writer in residence at the Reston,
after it. Using a standard form as a starting
opposite -- professors wanted too much
Virginia, offices of Finnegan, Henderson,
point, to see how others have handled similar
information rather than just enough, and Law
Farabow & Garrett. No need to whip out the
situations, is a fine idea. Cutting and pasting
Review writing was intricate and verbose. To
calculator, but scan a paragraph once in
from their work is not. When crafting your
avoid such wordiness, we’ve assembled this
a while. Good estimates that one-syllable
final product, says Cohen, raid the recycling
concise and clear guide to writing documents
words comprised about 70 percent of Oliver
bin only as a reference. Not only are you
that are downright literary.
Wendell Holmes’s opinions.
treading dangerously close to plagiarism, you
Write in short, declarative sentences. Aim
may be cribbing from inferior work. “Just be-
1 KEEP IT SIMPLE The objective of every writing assignment is to convince the reader that your position is the correct one. So your writing needs to be, well, convincing. Keep on a single, defined path that’s always going in the same direction. “The classic red flag is when a memo or brief meanders, identifying issues, cases, and other tourist attractions along the way,” says Peter Sloan, a partner in Kansas City’s Blackwell Sanders Peper Martin. You’re less likely to be distracted by detours if you stick to a plan (ideally one you’ve discussed with the assigning partner at the outset). Make an outline, and as you unearth the facts, file each one in the appropriate section. The final step: String them
for an average sentence length of 15 to 20
cause a document is in a brief bank doesn’t
words. The reader will move quickly and
necessarily mean it’s a good document, or
smoothly without getting bogged down in
better than what you’d come up with,” Cohen
sentences that go on and on and on and on
says. Also, don’t rely on documents written
and on.
decades earlier by lawyers in your firm. Form
Don’t lard your prose with superfluous infor-
and style often change, even within a prac-
all together.
mation. “People tend to think if one citation
tice. Ask your assigning lawyer if the firm has
is good, 15 are better,” says Cohen. “They’re
an up-to-date style guide.
not.” Your argument gets lost in the padding.
4 FOLLOW THE RULES The rules of 2 DON’T SHOW OFF Forget legalese. Being a lawyer doesn’t mean throwing around big, lawyerly words. “There is no place in a sophisticated law practice for legal gobbledygook,” says Sloan. Plain English is the only
grammar, that is. Do you know when to use
kind of writing partners expect. “You can
Aim for cleanliness in every sentence and
always pick an associate’s very first brief
in the document as a whole. “Identify the
out of the pack,” says Cohen. “They get into
document’s structure, transition, and phras-
“that” instead of “which”? “Whom” instead of “who”? (Are you sure?) Shabby grammar shows laziness and lack of interest-qualities that probably do not appear on your resume.
While most outlines end with an entry called
this mode where they use words that people
ing,” says Sloan. That means not mistaking
“Conclusion,” yours should be revealed up
never use, such as whereas.” If it’s not a
your computer’s spell-check and grammar
front. The Sixth Sense this isn’t. “It’s not a
word you’d say, then don’t write it. (Unless,
monitors-those squiggly red and green lines-
good idea to keep people guessing about the
of course, you normally use an abundance
for editing.
conclusion,” says Steven Cohen, a litigation
of profanity and backwoods slang when
partner at New York’s Kronish Lieb Weiner
discussing cases.) Speak your memo into a
Helpful resources abound, from reference
& Hellman. Read through your draft. If it
dictaphone first, then transcribe it. Chances
books (see box above) to proofreaders at your
fails to convince you, it probably won’t sway
are you’ll have a first draft that’s near what
firm. Take advantage.
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CAREER COUNSELOR’S CORNER
5 BE THE CLIENT Blanket rule: Assume anything you hand in will go straight to the client. This may not be true, but it happens. Ask other people-your office mate, assistant, even the partner on the deal-to be your readers. They may spot errors you’ve missed, from errant semicolons to faulty logic. The painful part is that sometimes your most important work won’t end up in the final draft. But sometimes you need to put down everything you know so you have a nice, thick trunk of information from which you can whittle your intricate argument. “The secret to good writing is rewriting-then more rewriting,” says Cohen. “No matter how much time you spent putting something into a memo, you shouldn’t be afraid to take it out.” Once you’ve completed a draft, do another, and another. “There’s no such thing as a first draft, second draft, third draft, and final draft,” says Cohen. “It’s a process that only ends when you run out of time. It’s a quest for perfection that is never achieved.” Maybe so, but you can come damn close.
Four titles to keep on your shelf at all times ... except when you’re using them:
Strunk & White’s The Elements of Style Plain English for Lawyers by Richard C. Wydick Essential English Grammar by Philip Gucker Merriam Webster’s Dictionary of Law
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