Legal Research and Writing

01/16/2024

Used by lawyers in drafting legal documents and for papers (pleadings/complaint)

*Bad reputation- overly technical, wordy or verbose, and confusing.

*To communicate a complex idea in a simple, digestible and manageable form.

*Must concern itself not only with grammatically correct sentence but with the requirement of
readability.

English rules that we should adopt

 Use the active voice (prefer the active voice over the passive-the subject is receives the action).
-this rule is more direct and has crisper.
-when you see a b-verb and followed by a past tense verb and a preposition you have a passive
voice.
 Avoid nominalization in verbs.
-Nominalization- is a process in which a writer converts a verb into a noun.
-Ex. Collide- collision, donate-donation,
 Avoid redundancy.
 Avoid compound constructions- uses three or four words to say what can easily be said in one or
two words.
-makes writing dry and boring.
Ex. At this point in time- instead, at this point