Set in Style

Yesterday, I raised this question: is it true, as Josh Camson (host of the Social Media Law Student) claims and as H. Scott Leviant (host of The Complex Litigator) denies, that Twitter can make you a better legal writer?

I raised the question, and then I demonstrated some techniques for expressing yourself without exceeding Twitter’s 140-character limit.

I’ve heard quite enough from you. What’s your point?

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I say “Yes. Learning to be clear and concise can make you a much more effective legal writer.” And that’s because of this simple rule: Time is Valuable.

The clerks and judges and attorneys who read what you write value their time, and they don’t like you to waste it, as when you give them 25 words when 12 would do just fine.

Whenever we can make 25 words do the work of 50, we halve the area in which looseness and disorganization can flourish.

– Wilson Follett, author of Follett’s Modern American Usage 

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Here’s a good exercise:

1. Dig up some brief that you wrote a while ago.
2. Open it in Microsoft Word, or any other editor.
3. Copy one sentence.
4. Record how many words it contains.
5. Cut the sentence, as much as you can.

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Get in the habit of cutting as many words as you can from your next brief. Cut it as much as you can each time you review it. The fewer words you use to say what you need to say, the more effective you are.

I guarantee it.

Never use a long word when a diminutive one will do.

– William Safire, recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom

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If you find it somewhere between impossible and all-too-difficult to cut any significant copy from your old briefs, consider Twittering. It’s an exercise that can help you acquire a very important skill, one you weren’t taught in law school — how to be brief and concise.

This entry was posted 1 June 2009 at 11:05 and is filed under Blogging, Twittering, Etc., Writing & Editing. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.