Precision: Why Attorneys Need Editors
Consider the following two sentences:
“The quickest way to get there is through this door.”
“The fastest way to get there is through that door.”
The first regards time; the second regards speed.
Suppose you’re in a rush, and you forget the big difference between quickest and fastest. That can happen when you’re pressed for time and have too much to do.
Readers don’t know that you were in a big rush. They don’t know that you didn’t have ample time to write a client alert. And they don’t care. They just see what you wrote, and conclude: you pay attention to details and distinctions, or you don’t.
Anything you write could form a potential client’s first impression of you. That’s given. Make mistakes, and a potential client’s first impression of you is more likely to be “this writer seems a bit careless” than less likely to be “this writer does well under pressure.”
Readers see your mistakes (once they’re published). The fewer (mistakes), the better.
