Some common problems in legal writing, a series--part 1: Overview

The original "transportation product liability" text (here) had several problems common in legal writing. Here's my list. I will comment on each item in a series of posts.

Dangling modifier
Lack of care in proofreading or lack of knowledge of the conventions of English style or lack of a reliable source to consult or lack of a willingness to consult a reliable source, specifically
  • Plurals
  • Redundancy
  • Verb forms
  • Usage
Unnecessary use of the passive voice
Distracting use of initials and acronyms
Punctuation mistakes
  • Period with parentheses
  • Serial comma
  • Dash
  • Hyphen
Use of typefaces for emphasis
Weak sentence and paragraph connecting
Abstraction


 Wayne Schiess
Director of Legal Writing | The University of Texas School of Law | Website | Seminars | Articles | Books: Preparing Legal Documents Nonlawyers Can Read and Understand | Better Legal Writing | Writing for the Legal Audience | The Legal Memo: A Basic Guide
 

Posted by Wayne Schiess at 4/1/2009 7:24 AM
Categories: Improvement,Grammar and Punctuation,Usage
 

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