Writing for Dollars, Writing to Please

Writing for Dollars, Writing to Please PDF Author: Joseph Kimble
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781531024543
Category : Government report writing
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book

Book Description
Writing for Dollars, Writing to Please seeks to change public and legal writing--by making the ultimate case for plain language. The book gathers a large body of evidence for two related truths: using plain language can save businesses and government agencies a ton of money, and plain language serves and satisfies readers in every possible way. It also debunks the ten biggest myths about plain writing and looks back on 50 highlights in plain-language history. The first edition was described by reviewers as "powerful," "compelling," "inspiring," and "astounding." This second edition has been updated and expanded throughout. Professor Joseph Kimble is a leading international expert on this subject. Here is the book that sums up his important work, with a message that is vital to every government writer, business writer, and attorney.

Writing for Dollars, Writing to Please

Writing for Dollars, Writing to Please PDF Author: Joseph Kimble
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781531024543
Category : Government report writing
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book

Book Description
Writing for Dollars, Writing to Please seeks to change public and legal writing--by making the ultimate case for plain language. The book gathers a large body of evidence for two related truths: using plain language can save businesses and government agencies a ton of money, and plain language serves and satisfies readers in every possible way. It also debunks the ten biggest myths about plain writing and looks back on 50 highlights in plain-language history. The first edition was described by reviewers as "powerful," "compelling," "inspiring," and "astounding." This second edition has been updated and expanded throughout. Professor Joseph Kimble is a leading international expert on this subject. Here is the book that sums up his important work, with a message that is vital to every government writer, business writer, and attorney.

Legal Reasoning and Political Conflict

Legal Reasoning and Political Conflict PDF Author: Cass R. Sunstein
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0195353498
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 233

Get Book

Book Description
The most glamorous and even glorious moments in a legal system come when a high court recognizes an abstract principle involving, for example, human liberty or equality. Indeed, Americans, and not a few non-Americans, have been greatly stirred--and divided--by the opinions of the Supreme Court, especially in the area of race relations, where the Court has tried to revolutionize American society. But these stirring decisions are aberrations, says Cass R. Sunstein, and perhaps thankfully so. In Legal Reasoning and Political Conflict, Sunstein, one of America's best known commentators on our legal system, offers a bold, new thesis about how the law should work in America, arguing that the courts best enable people to live together, despite their diversity, by resolving particular cases without taking sides in broader, more abstract conflicts. Sunstein offers a close analysis of the way the law can mediate disputes in a diverse society, examining how the law works in practical terms, and showing that, to arrive at workable, practical solutions, judges must avoid broad, abstract reasoning. Why? For one thing, critics and adversaries who would never agree on fundamental ideals are often willing to accept the concrete details of a particular decision. Likewise, a plea bargain for someone caught exceeding the speed limit need not--indeed, must not--delve into sweeping issues of government regulation and personal liberty. Thus judges purposely limit the scope of their decisions to avoid reopening large-scale controversies. Sunstein calls such actions incompletely theorized agreements. In identifying them as the core feature of legal reasoning--and as a central part of constitutional thinking in America, South Africa, and Eastern Europe-- he takes issue with advocates of comprehensive theories and systemization, from Robert Bork (who champions the original understanding of the Constitution) to Jeremy Bentham, the father of utilitarianism, and Ronald Dworkin, who defends an ambitious role for courts in the elaboration of rights. Equally important, Sunstein goes on to argue that it is the living practice of the nation's citizens that truly makes law. For example, he cites Griswold v. Connecticut, a groundbreaking case in which the Supreme Court struck down Connecticut's restrictions on the use of contraceptives by married couples--a law that was no longer enforced by prosecutors. In overturning the legislation, the Court invoked the abstract right of privacy; the author asserts that the justices should have appealed to the narrower principle that citizens need not comply with laws that lack real enforcement. By avoiding large-scale issues and values, such a decision could have led to a different outcome in Bowers v. Hardwick, the decision that upheld Georgia's rarely prosecuted ban on sodomy. And by pointing to the need for flexibility over time and circumstances, Sunstein offers a novel understanding of the old ideal of the rule of law. Legal reasoning can seem impenetrable, mysterious, baroque. This book helps dissolve the mystery. Whether discussing the interpretation of the Constitution or the spell cast by the revolutionary Warren Court, Cass Sunstein writes with grace and power, offering a striking and original vision of the role of the law in a diverse society. In his flexible, practical approach to legal reasoning, he moves the debate over fundamental values and principles out of the courts and back to its rightful place in a democratic state: the legislatures elected by the people.

Legal Writing in the Disciplines

Legal Writing in the Disciplines PDF Author: Teri A. McMurtry-Chubb
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781594609596
Category : Legal composition
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book

Book Description
McMurtry-Chubb received the 2021 Thomas F. Blackwell Memorial Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Legal Writing. The award is is presented annually to a person who has made an outstanding contribution to improve the field of Legal Writing. One of the most common questions that prospective law students ask is "What is the best major to prepare me to study law?" The most common answer given by college advisors is "Any major." The perception of law school as a "free for all" accessible to students of any major sets students up for the confusion they experience in learning the law and legal skills. When students begin their legal education, they are taken out of their undergraduate and graduate disciplines and placed into the legal discipline without context for how their disciplinary education relates to their legal education. This leads to many of the frustrations that new law students have with law school, especially in their legal writing classes. Legal Writing in the Disciplines re-conceptualizes law in its disciplinary context. The text is designed to effectively communicate legal analysis and writing skills to pre-law and new law students using the language of their undergraduate and graduate majors. Legal writing is disciplinary writing, not just another form of technical writing. Law school is a disciplinary community. Integration into any disciplinary community occurs through the processes of reading and writing. The first chapter of the text details all aspects of the processes used to create practical legal writing (case briefs, notes, outlines and MindMaps, legal memos, legal briefs, exam outlines and exam answers). The five remaining chapters are divided into five broad disciplinary categories: Science, Social Science, Arts, Humanities and Business. Each chapter contains discipline-specific instruction on creating the different types of legal writing. The chapter sections lead the reader through the resolution of a legal problem through legal writing and provide answers for self-check with discipline-specific explanations on an interactive CD-ROM. The CD-ROM allows students to load PDFs (the materials, exercises, model answers, and case files to which the text refers) onto an iPad or other tablet for flexibility and ease of use in practicing legal writing skills. Additionally, the materials, exercises, and model answers are annotated in color with discipline-specific explanations to guide students as they assimilate new legal writing skills. A teacher's manual accompanies the text and features semester and quarter course planning options, learning outcomes and performance criteria for each week, lecture notes for each week, in-class exercises and supporting materials, and assessment rubrics for all assignments and skills. The rubrics are keyed to the weekly learning outcomes and performance criteria. An interactive CD-ROM with case files for a legal memo, legal brief, and other instructional materials is included.

The Legal Writing Survival Guide

The Legal Writing Survival Guide PDF Author: Rachel H. Smith
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781611631456
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book

Book Description
The Legal Writing Survival Guide is for any law student or lawyer facing legal writing's most common conundrums, including: the document that is too complicated, the memo that didn't find the "right" answer, the brief that must deal with bad law, and the email that has to deliver bad news. Covering predictive writing, persuasive writing, and correspondence, it offers practical tips, tricks, and tactics. The Legal Writing Survival Guide also includes clear illustrations and solutions to common grammar, punctuation, citation, and style issues that are critical to surviving any legal writing assignment. It is the survival guide you have been waiting for. Whether you are a procrastinator, a pessimist, or just plain perplexed, The Legal Writing Survival Guide will help.

Legal Writing by Design

Legal Writing by Design PDF Author: Teresa J. Reid Rambo
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781594608599
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book

Book Description
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.

Writing and Analysis in the Law

Writing and Analysis in the Law PDF Author: Helene S. Shapo
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 598

Get Book

Book Description
Legal writing of statutes, case law, decisions, memorandums, client interviews, advocacy, appellate briefs, trial briefs, and oral arguments as well as an introduction to citations and using the ALWD Citation Manual is featured.

Writing for the Legal Audience

Writing for the Legal Audience PDF Author: Wayne Schiess
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781611633917
Category : Legal composition
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book

Book Description
First published in 2003, Writing for the Legal Audience guides lawyers, paralegals, and law students through sensible, practical advice for writing to a dozen legal audiences, from supervisors to appellate judges and from clients to opposing counsel. Each chapter focuses on a different audience for legal writing and presents three concrete recommendations for satisfying that audience. The recommendations are amply supported with explanations, references to the leading experts, and numerous before-and-after examples. The second edition is thoroughly revised, with new tips, new examples, and up-to-date advice for producing clear, readable, effective legal writing. In addition, Schiess has added a new chapter, "Writing for the Screen Reader," that offers advice for preparing legal documents aimed at readers who will encounter the text electronically on a computer, tablet, or handheld device.

Academic Legal Writing

Academic Legal Writing PDF Author: Eugene Volokh
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 228

Get Book

Book Description
Resource added for the Paralegal program 101101.

Beyond the First Draft

Beyond the First Draft PDF Author: Megan McAlpin
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781531027131
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book

Book Description
Beyond the First Draft helps law students and lawyers approach the often difficult task of editing their own writing. The book starts with the fundamental idea that good writing is organized, vigorous, clear, and polished. Its ultimate goal is to help students and practitioners understand that good writing cannot be accomplished in a single draft; good writers must be good editors. Each chapter of the book is organized around one of the principles of good writing and begins with an editing checklist for accomplishing that principle of good writing. The book explains each item in the checklist, providing both students and lawyers with the instruction and straightforward editing tips that they need to become effective editors. Beyond the First Draft was written with law students, practitioners, and legal writing professors in mind. Its straightforward approach makes even those difficult-to-understand grammatical concepts accessible to everyone through frequent, easy-to-understand reminders, explanations, and examples. The updated second edition of the book includes a new introduction that helps writers think about the ways in which language evolves over time and puts the book's expanded coverage of pronouns into context. In addition, this new introduction will give professors and students alike the opportunity to think critically about the ways in which the formal written English of legal writing differs from both informal written and spoken English.

Writing by Numbers

Writing by Numbers PDF Author: Melissa Shultz
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781531014438
Category : Legal composition
Languages : en
Pages : 350

Get Book

Book Description
"This book aims to demystify the legal writing process by providing concrete formulas-both macro and micro formulas-for mastering the content required for objective and persuasive legal analysis. The "macro" formula we start with in this book is CRAC, which stands for Conclusion ("C"), Rule ("R"), Analysis ("A"), and Conclusion ("C"). Within this macro formula, we use "micro" formulas to help you draft the different parts of CRAC. This book also takes different parts of legal work product, such as the introduction to a motion or the question presented of an objective memo, and breaks those parts down into components so that you can see how they are put together and then can write your own by applying those basic constructs. At each juncture of your legal writing journey, this book will give you a roadmap to follow (and a step-by-step list of directions) such that you will never feel completely lost and never find yourself faced with an entirely blank page"--