Legal Writing in English

Christopher R. Kelley
Associate Professor of Law
University of Arkansas School of Law
ckelley.christopher@gmail.com

Assignment One

Why Plain English?

Welcome to Legal Writing in English. I am looking forward to working with you on your
legal writing in English.

Our primary text will be Richard C. Wydick, Plain English for Lawyers (5th ed. 2005). We
will cover everything in this book and more. I will assign additional readings for each subject
we cover in Wydick’s book, and we will cover more subjects than Wydick’s book covers.

I will give you many readings, all of which are likely to help you now in your studies and
later in your career. I also will give you exercises.

Although I will “assign” these readings and exercises, I expect you to do the
assignments only if you have the time. If you do not have time to read the readings or to do
the exercises as they are distributed, I encourage you to do so when you have the time. I
recommend that you save all the readings I distribute in the course to read and re-read as you
advance your legal writing in English skills.

I especially encourage you to read Plain English for Lawyers. Indeed, I encourage you to
read it several times during this course and to re-read it every year or so, if not more
frequently. It is a good book. If you follow Professor Wydick’s recommendations, your legal
writing in English will improve greatly. The “plain English” style he recommends and describes
in Plain English for Lawyers is the legal writing style taught in U.S. law schools.

Though we will not discuss every assigned reading during our class sessions, you are
always welcome to ask questions about the readings, exercises, and anything else relevant to
the course. Indeed, one of the reasons we will meet as a class will be to give you the
opportunity to ask questions. So please ask questions.

Assigned Reading:

Please read the following:

1. Chapter 1, Why Plain English?, in Richard C. Wydick, Plain English for Lawyers
 (5th ed. 2005); and

2. Christopher R. Kelley, An Essay on Legal Writing in Plain English, 4 Kyiv-Mohyla

Law & Politics J. 175 (2018).

We will focus on Chapter 1 during our first class. Our goal will be to define “plain
English” and to understand why it is effective. When you read my essay, you will be
introduced to many of the topics we will cover in this course.

As I have mentioned, U.S. law students are instructed to write in “plain English.” For
many students, this requires them to “unlearn” what they learned in high school or college.
For instance, they might have been taught to impress their readers by using a big, uncommon
word when a shorter, commonly used word was available. Using words your readers will not
understand is a barrier to effective communication. To be effective as a lawyer, good
communication skills are essential. Thus, learning how to write plainly is vital to a lawyer’s
success.

Most attorneys, judges, and clients appreciate writers who use plain English. The U.S.
government requires plain English in administrative rules and federal administrative agency
documents. Other national governments, such as the Australian government, and other
governmental bodies, such as the European Commission, also require or encourage plain
English.

In our second class, we will cover Chapter 2 in Plain English for Lawyers. But because
omitting unnecessary words is important, I encourage you to read the entire chapter at your
earliest opportunity so that you will be introduced to the various ways Professor Wydick offers
for eliminating unnecessary words. We will revisit Chapter 2 from time to time throughout the
course.

Plain English for Lawyers offers suggested answers for its exercises. I encourage you to
try to do these exercises before and after we cover the principles they require you to apply.

I also encourage you to read the following:

1. Mark Mathewson, Law Students, Beware, Mich. Bar J., Jan. 2003, at 42.

Lawyers often write badly. And some of the reasons they write badly are
mentioned in this two-page article.

2. Bryan A. Garner, Learning to Loathe Legalese, Mich. Bar J., Nov. 2003, at 52.

Bryan Garner earns his living by writing about legal writing and by teaching

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 lawyers how to write better. He would like for you to avoid legalese. And his
two-page article tells you why some lawyers still use legalese when they
shouldn’t.

3. Irving Younger, A Good Example and a Bad, Mich. Bar J., June 2003, at 42.

Irving Younger was a skilled trial lawyer and, later in his career, a law professor.
He is best known as teacher of trial advocacy. As a good trial lawyer, he knew
that good trial lawyers also must be good writers. After all, as lawyers our job is
to communicate effectively, whether we speak or write our words. In his one-
page article, he tells you to write directly.

4. Irving Younger, Skimming the Fat Off Your Writing, Mich. Bar J., May 2003, at 32.

This is another excellent article by Irving Younger, one that complements

Chapter 2 in Plain English for Lawyers well. Professor Younger is succinct; this
article says much in one page.

Notice that this article and the ones that precede it appear in state bar
association magazines. State bar associations know that their readers–their
lawyer-members–want and need to improve their legal writing.

5. The Quality Writing Center at the University of Arkansas, #7) Some Steps Toward
Concise Writing (Revised Mar. 2, 2004).

U.S. colleges and universities have writing centers and writing development
programs to help their students improve their writing skills. This two-page
monograph prepared by the Quality Writing Center at the University of Arkansas
will help you write more concisely. Incidentally, at the University of Arkansas
School of Law, we require our students to take at least three legal writing and
research courses.

Finally, the State Bar of Michigan’s Publications & Website Advisory Committee’s Plain-
English Subcommittee maintains a website where many excellent articles about legal writing in
Plain English can be found: https://www.michbar.org/generalinfo/plainenglish/home. I highly
recommend that you explore this website and bookmark it for your future reference. New
articles are regularly posted to this website.

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