The Lawyer's Guide to Writing Well. Tom Goldstein

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      THE LAWYER'S GUIDE

       TO WRITING WELL

      Tom Goldstein

      Professor, Columbia School of JournalismColumbia University

      Jethro K. Lieberman

      Associate Dean for Academic Affairs,Professor of Law, and Director,The Writing ProgramNew York Law School

      SECOND EDITION

      University of California Press

      Berkeley / Los Angeles / London

      University of California Press

      Berkeley and Los Angeles, California

      University of California Press, Ltd.

      London, England

      © 2002 by

      he Regents of the University of California

      Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

      Goldstein, Tom.

      The lawyer's guide to writing well / Tom Goldstein and Jethro K. Lieberman.—2nd ed.

      p. cm.

      Includes bibliographical references and index.

      ISBN 0-520-23472-3 (cloth : alk. paper). — ISBN 0–520–23473–1

      (paper : alk. paper)

      1. Legal composition. I. Lieberman, Jethro Koller. II. Title.

      KF250 .G65 2002

      808'.06634—dc21

      2002009717

      Manufactured in the United States of America

      10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01

      10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

      The paper used in this publication is both acid-free and totally chlorine-free (TCF). It meets the minimum requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48–1992 (R 1997) (Permanence of Paper).

      To Leslie and Jo

       CONTENTS

       PREFACE

       PART I WHY LAWYERS WRITE POORLY

       1 Does Bad Writing Really Matter?

       2 Don't Make It Like It Was

       PART II THE PROCESS OF WRITING

       3 Ten Steps to Writing

       4 Of Dawdlers and Scrawlers, Pacers, and Plungers: Getting Started and Overcoming Blocks

       5 The Mechanics of Getting It Down: From Quill Pens to Computers

       6 Lessons from a Writing Audit

       7 Lawyers as Publishers: Words Are Their Product

       PART III MANAGING YOUR PROSE

       8 Writing the Lead

       9 Form, Structure, and Organization

       10 Wrong Words, Long Sentences, and Other Mister Meaners

       11 Revising Your Prose

       12 Making Your Writing Memorable

       NOTES

       USAGE NOTES

       AN EDITING CHECKLIST

       EDITING EXERCISES

       SUGGESTED REVISIONS TO EDITING EXERCISES

       REFERENCE WORKS

       ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

       ABOUT THE AUTHORS

       INDEX

       PREFACE

      The first edition of this book was written in 1988, at a time when many critics were bemoaning the state of legal writing but few were doing anything about it. Between October 1987 and June 1988, we asked 650 people familiar with legal writing—practicing lawyers, judges, professors, writing instructors, and journalists who report on legal topics— what bothered them most about the way lawyers write. We do not pretend that our survey was scientific: We sent a four-page questionnaire to people listed on our Rolodexes. As journalists we had covered law and the legal profession since the early 1970s for a variety of news media, and our list included thoughtful lawyers and writers in half the states and every major city; most major law firms, scores of smaller firms, and courts; law schools; and newspapers, magazines, and broadcast stations across the country. The answers from 300 respondents inform a portion of this book. People named in the text but not identified in the notes were respondents and are identified in the acknowledgments. Unattributed statements about what lawyers, judges, professors, writing instructors, and journalists “think,” “feel,” or “believe” are drawn from the statements of these respondents, as are some of the displayed quotations.

      In the dozen years since the first edition appeared, there have been vast changes in the technology of communications—the ways in which lawyers produce and distribute their letters, memoranda, briefs, and other documents. In the late 1980s, desktop computers were beginning to find their way into lawyers' offices, but probably few lawyers used them regularly or proficiently. (Indeed, lawyers at some firms told us they were forbidden to touch a computer; managing partners in those days viewed the “word processor” as a tool for secretaries and typists, not professionals.) By today's standards, early desktop computers were clunky machines, though surely useful and already then revolutionizing the production of legal paper. Although laser printers became available, few offices had hooked them to their computers or were realizing their potential to supplant the print shops to which at least the