Guthrie S Guide To Better Legal Writing 2 E

Guthrie's Guide to Better Legal Writing focuses on communicating more effectively in e-mail, letters, memos, blog posts, client updates, and social media, with some pointers on contractual drafting and written advocacy. The second edition incorporates significant new material based on reader queries.

Guthrie's Guide to Better Legal Writing won't solve all your problems, but it will help you make your prose clear, correct, and compelling. The focus is on communicating more effectively in e-mail, letters, memos, blog posts, client updates, and social media, but there are some pointers on contractual drafting and written advocacy as well.

This eminently practical volume demystifies legal writing, outlines the causes and consequences of bad writing, and prescribes straightforward, easy-to-apply remedies that will make your writing readable. Complete with usage notes that address lawyers' most common errors, this well-organized book is both an invaluable tool for practicing lawyers and a sensible grounding for law students. This much-revised second edition contains a set of editing exercises (and a suggested revision key with explanations) to test your skill. This book is a definitive guide to becoming a better writer—and a better lawyer.

This practical, student-focused text introduces writing skills essential for successful study in law and explains how to apply them in a legal context. It is designed as a course book for first year law students with ongoing relevance as a resource in subsequent years at law school and beyond. Basic literacy, legal literacy and writing skills are explored in a way that is fully integrated into legal content, reflecting current pedagogical best-practice. The text assists students to develop sound legal writing skills, providing a solid foundation to enhance performance in professional legal writing tasks. It includes many examples, case-studies and exercises and is supported by extensive online resources for lecturers. The second edition of this text offers expanded examples and explanations of the types of legal writing required of both students and professionals. Features Basic literacy, legal literacy and writing skills are explored in a way that is fully integrated into legal content Contains many examples, case-studies, opportunities for revision, questions and exercises Revised and extended to include many new examples Contributes the achievement of the attributes identified by the Australian Teaching and Learning Council (ALTC) threshold learning outcomes (TLO) for law, in particular TLO 5: Communication and collaboration Extensive suite of lecturer and student online ancillary resources Related Titles Bott & Talbot-Stokes, Nemes and Coss' Effective Legal Research, 5th ed, 2012Cook, Creyke, Geddes, Hamer & Taylor, Laying Down the Law, 9th ed, 2015Meehan & Tulloch, LexisNexis Guides: Grammar for Lawyers, 3rd ed, 2013Stuhmcke, LexisNexis Guides: Legal Referencing, 4th ed, 2013

The second edition has the same accessible format as the first; it divides the process of thinking & writing about legal problems into steps, explains the steps, illustrates good & bad ways of applying the steps, & provides focused exercises to reinforce good legal writing skills. Three new appendixes-two trial court briefs & a second memo-have also been added. The methods & writing skills in the book teach & reinforce the basic skills for "thinking like a lawyer." Complimentary Teacher's Manual available for quantity orders by professors & law schools. Second & third printings in 1995 & 1999 respectively. THIS BOOK IS PART OF OUR STUDENT SURVIVAL PACK...6 books for one low price (see Hein Item #324340).

The second edition of Legal Writing by Design remains unique in demonstrating how to transform thoughts into writing by explaining the link between thinking and writing. It doesn't just tell the reader to "argue by analogy" or to "apply the rule" -- it explains the design of the thinking involved in those processes and shows how to transform that design into writing. Through easily understandable hypotheticals, outlines, graphics, exercises, and writing samples, many garnered during the authors' combined forty-plus years of teaching legal writing and appellate advocacy to law students, Legal Writing by Design comprehensively demonstrates how to transform ideas into exceptional writing. It demystifies the writing process by explaining the design of (1) deductive and inductive reasoning, (2) analogical thinking, and (3) relevancy. Once that design is understood, writing becomes easy. Writing with liberal doses of humor, the authors provide clearly readable charts, examples, and templates throughout this second edition. All chapters include a chapter review, and many also provide writing prompts. In addition to chapters explaining the fundamentals of writing legal memos and briefs, Legal Writing by Design contains sections on (1) clear and effective writing; (2) the appellate process, including an easily understandable explanation of standards of review; (3) oral argument techniques and practice; (4) the writing and editing process; (5) case briefing; and (6) professionalism in the practice of law. Exercises corresponding to the principles explained are included throughout most chapters, with answers provided in a separate Teacher's Manual. Successfully used for over ten years by thousands of law school students, Legal Writing by Design is the perfect tool for anyone -- attorneys, legal assistants, pro se litigants, undergraduate students, or the public -- who seeks the ideal way to analyze issues, to write clearly, and to write persuasively.

Admirably clear, concise, down-to-earth, and powerful—all too often, legal writing embodies none of these qualities. Its reputation for obscurity and needless legalese is widespread. Since 2001 Bryan A. Garner’s Legal Writing in Plain English has helped address this problem by providing lawyers, judges, paralegals, law students, and legal scholars with sound advice and practical tools for improving their written work. Now the leading guide to clear writing in the field, this indispensable volume encourages legal writers to challenge conventions and offers valuable insights into the writing process that will appeal to other professionals: how to organize ideas, create and refine prose, and improve editing skills. Accessible and witty, Legal Writing in Plain English draws on real-life writing samples that Garner has gathered through decades of teaching experience. Trenchant advice covers all types of legal materials, from analytical and persuasive writing to legal drafting, and the book’s principles are reinforced by sets of basic, intermediate, and advanced exercises in each section. In this new edition, Garner preserves the successful structure of the original while adjusting the content to make it even more classroom-friendly. He includes case examples from the past decade and addresses the widespread use of legal documents in electronic formats. His book remains the standard guide for producing the jargon-free language that clients demand and courts reward.

It matters how you write. Lean, clear, crisp prose is no luxury for practitioners who face crowded court calendars, staggering mounds of paper, and overly long affidavits, memoranda, and briefs. Disorganized documents full of "legalese" burden courts and shortchange clients. This concise, lively, and eminently practical volume demystifies legal writing, outlines the causes and consequences of bad writing, and prescribes straightforward, easy-to-apply remedies that will make your writing readable. Everything that most lawyers will need to improve their writing quickly and markedly is here. Authoritative and unique among legal writing guides, the book draws on a nationwide survey conducted by the authors. In their responses, 300 lawyers, judges, professors, writing instructors, and legal journalists from all over the country provided insights into lawyers' writing habits. Throughout The Lawyer's Guide, authors Goldstein and Lieberman illustrate their points with instructive examples taken from these lawyers' daily practices. Complete with a glossary that addresses lawyers' most common errors, this easy-to-use book is an invaluable tool for practicing lawyers and a sensible grounding for law students. It is a definitive guide to becoming a better writer--and a better lawyer.