Adonai Jireh Dionne A. Balite Atty.

Ocampo
Legal Writing September 14, 2020

1. What is legal writing?

- Legal writing is the kind of writing used by lawyers, law professors, judges and other
works in the field of law to express legal rights, obligations and opinions.

2. What are the Objectives of writing a legal document?

- It actually depends on what type of legal document is needed. What I mean is that,
the different types of legal writing have different objectives, per se. Since there are
three types of legal writing, let me discuss the three with their respective objectives.
Firstly, Informative Legal Writing, this is a type of legal writing wherein the
document conveys information on an issue involving law or a person’s legal rights.
This type of legal writing does not take sides. Its goal is objective communication by
predicting the law’s “path” vis-a-vis a set of facts regardless of who is involved.
Secondly, Persuasive writing, this writing convinces a reader to accept a certain
viewpoint. Here, the writer argues for a particular side or perspective. Its goal is to
convince a party that his (the writer’s viewpoint) is the right one, and he does so by
using legal tools to support his thesis. Lastly, Functional Writing, this is writing is
designed for a specific use or result in law. These are deeds, wills, contracts, or
drafts of laws and ordinances legally bind those involved. This kind of writing need
not to be persuasive or analytical.

3. What would make a poorly written legal document?

- Defying the elements of legal writing which are: simplicity, clarity, and
persuasiveness. The three elements of legal writing are the most basic things to be
done in order for a legal document to be decently made. Simplicity in writing means
to write plainly and simply. In writing a legal document, the author must always
observe the rules on “economy of expression” each sentence must say what the
author wants to convey, nothing more, nothing less. Convoluted words and word
constructions must be avoided. According to William Zinsser, “the secret of good
writing is to strip every sentence to its cleanest component. Every word that serves
no function, every long word that could be a short word, every adverb which carries
the same meaning that is already in the verb , weakens the sentence.” Clarity in
writing means the author is able to express exactly what he wants to be reflected on
his work. The last thing the author would want is to confuse his readers. Lastly,
Persuasiveness, being a bad persuasive writer would make a bad legal document,
obviously because in writing a legal document, being able to influence your readers
is one of the main objectives (as mentioned above).
4. The essential qualities of a well written legal document are Relevance and Purpose.
- Relevance is the concept of one topic being connected to another topic in a way that
makes it useful to consider the second topic when considering the first. It is the degree
to which something is related or useful to what is happening or being talked about.
Purpose, on the other hand, is an intention or aim; a reason for writing a legal
document. It is the reason as to why something is said or done or the cause behind a
certain situation or circumstance.,