Expert Legal Writing

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Overview

For ten years, Terri LeClercq’s "Legal Writing" column in the Texas Bar Journal has helped polish the prose of lawyers and law students, judges and clerks, paralegals, writing instructors, and legal secretaries. This book collects all the advice she has given in her columns into one authoritative guide for expert legal writing. LeClercq covers everything a legal writer needs to know, from the mechanics of grammar and punctuation to the finer points of style, organization, and clarity of meaning. With her ...
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Overview

For ten years, Terri LeClercq’s "Legal Writing" column in the Texas Bar Journal has helped polish the prose of lawyers and law students, judges and clerks, paralegals, writing instructors, and legal secretaries. This book collects all the advice she has given in her columns into one authoritative guide for expert legal writing. LeClercq covers everything a legal writer needs to know, from the mechanics of grammar and punctuation to the finer points of style, organization, and clarity of meaning. With her practical, readable, and often humorous advice, those who prepare legal documents can rid their prose of mind-numbing "legalese" and write with the clarity and precision that characterize the very best legal writing.
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What People Are Saying

Lynn N. Hughes
LeClercq can be read generally for an education or consulted specifically for an answer. In either case, her short and readable articles are practical aids to maintaining your intelligibility and, frankly, your credibility.
— Lynn N. Hughes, United States District Judge
Mark Weiss
Drop what you're doing and get a copy of Terri LeClercq's book. Read it, absorb it, and use it daily. Your writing and your thinking will improve. Ms. LeClercq will rid you of the dense, hidebound jargon you were taught in law school, and introduce you to the wonderful world of clarity and brevity.
— Mark Weiss, Senior Administrative Law Judge
Lynn N. Hughes
LeClercq can be read generally for an education or consulted specifically for an answer. In either case, her short and readable articles are practical aids to maintaining your intelligibility and, frankly, your credibility.
Mark Weiss
Drop what you’re doing and get a copy of Terri LeClercq’s book. Read it, absorb it, and use it daily. Your writing and your thinking will improve. Ms. LeClercq will rid you of the dense, hidebound jargon you were taught in law school, and introduce you to the wonderful world of clarity and brevity.
Lynn N. Hughes
Lynn N. Hughes, United States District Judge

LeClercq can be read generally for an education or consulted specifically for an answer. In either case, her short and readable articles are practical aids to maintaining your intelligibility and, frankly, your credibility.

Mark Weiss
Mark Weiss, Senior Administrative Law Judge

Drop what you're doing and get a copy of Terri LeClercq's book. Read it, absorb it, and use it daily. Your writing and your thinking will improve. Ms. LeClercq will rid you of the dense, hidebound jargon you were taught in law school, and introduce you to the wonderful world of clarity and brevity.

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Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780292746886
  • Publisher: University of Texas Press
  • Publication date: 1/28/1995
  • Edition description: 1st ed
  • Pages: 200
  • Product dimensions: 5.82 (w) x 9.24 (h) x 0.52 (d)

Table of Contents

Foreword by Chief Justice Thomas R. Phillip
Acknowledgments
Part I. Introduction: Getting and Keeping a Competitive Edge
Introduction
1. Writing like a Lawyer
2. Writing's a Touchy Subject
3. Focus on Density
4. Attorneys and Writer's Block
5. Min(d)ing the Field: Appellate Judges Speak Out
Part II. Manipulating Legal Sentences: First Aid
6. The Long Sentence
7. Left-Handed Sentences
8. Marshmallow Constructions
9. Cases and Citations Within the Text
10. Coordination and Subordination: Defining Relationships
11. Examining Other Professional Prose
12. Emulating the Pro's Prose: Stylistic Consciousness
13. Deliberate Sentence Structure
14. Beware of Ambiguous Modifiers
Part III. Manipulating Legal Organization: Structure Is Meaning
15. Organization and the Deductive Thrust
16. Organizational Advice for Successful Drafting
17. Quick Tricks for Organization
Part IV Manipulating Words: Bigger Isn't Better
18. Jargon: Manure, Margarine, and Moderation
19. Boilerplate: Empty Formalisms
20. Gender-Neutral Language
21. That's Not What I Meant
Part V. Punctuating for Clarity: The Poetry of Punctuation
22. Allowing Commas to Create Meaning
23. Sentence Punctuation Guide
24. "Quotation Marks?" She Queried--or, The Arbitrary Rules Surrounding Quotation Marks
25. That Sophisticated Semicolon
26. Compound Adjectives and Noun Strings
Part VI. Advice and References: So Go Be an Expert
27. Testing Your Basics
28. Grammar Rules Versus Suggestions
29. Advice to Partners About Advice
30. Reference Books for Legal Writers
Index
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