News Flash: Check out the blog tour for Plain Language Legal Writing.
Think you can translate legalese? Enter the plain language contest and win a free copy of the book.
What One Skill Will Let You Build A Solid, Unbreakable Law Practice?
How much time do you spend marketing? Do you put as much energy as you think you should getting new clients? Do you imagine that the only way to build or keep your practice is to spend a fortune on advertising, or do constantly run on the treadmill of marketing? What if there's a better idea?
Dr. Joseph Mercola is a doctor with a highly successful internet business, selling information about health to thousands of people. He has some brilliant advice for building a business. He says to ask this one question: On a scale of 0 to 10, how likely would you be to recommend our business to your friends and family? Aim for getting 80% of your customers to answer nine or ten, and you've got a successful business.
Put that advice to work for your law practice.
What would happen if you could figure out a way to achieve the kind of relationship with your clients that would result in not only loyalty, keeping the clients you have, but in a constant stream of referrals? How much easier would it be to build your practice?
...detailed, generally applicable to any good writing, well-thought out and useful...
Put our embarrassingly medieval legal writing tradition out of its present misery... and turn it into unpretentious English which clients and other lawyers will actually want to read.
Bravo.
—Dan Hull, Washington DC attorney and author of the law blog What About the Clients
The Secret is Trust.
Legal marketing expert John Cunningham says, in Ten Habits of Highly Successful Law Firms, that one of the most important things you can do is to "cultivate transparency and trust."
Legalese is a block to communication with clients; it has made lawyers the butt of jokes for centuries.
—Cheryl Stephens
Nobody Trusts a Lawyer
Did you ever wonder why lawyers have such a bad reputation?
There is no shortage of advice about building trust in your law firm. (See Build A Solo Practice and Law Practice Today.) And it's true that there are several ways to increase your firm's trust level.
- Keep your word.
- Return calls.
- Be open, transparent.
But somehow, people miss the most important part: Stop acting like a lawyer.
How did we get into such a mess?
Latin was the language of law before the Norman Conquest of England in 1066. Afterwards, French became the dominant language of education, culture, and law. English survived amongst the population and later prevailed.
In 1362, the Crown decreed that oral pleadings in court should be in English. Later English was required in statutes; in 1731 in written pleadings. This is how the combinations of Latin, French and English words came to be used to express meaning with greater certainty—a habit that is clearly out-of-date.
The Real Secret to Trust
A law firm is a service business. And service businesses thrive on relationships and trust. Yet lawyers make a habit of alienating everyone they work with, by using what has been called gobbledygook, gibberish, or legalese. But you don't have to hide behind unintelligible language. You can be one of the good guys—or gals.
Plain Language Legal Writing will help you pull your head out of the clouds, and make a real connection with your clients. Read more about Plain Language Legal Writing below.
Plain Language Legal Writing
Plain Language Legal Writing, by Cheryl Stephens, is a complete guide to clean, precise and understandable legal writing.
She starts with the basics of plain language and why it matters, and immediately delves into the art of thinking, and how your thinking is reflected in your writing.
Thinking is the first step in communicating. Successful writers devote the major portion of their time to the thinking or incubation stage because it is in this stage that you discover what your real message is.
So many books give you advice that turns out to be hollow: "know your audience," "structure your writing." The real strength in Plain Language Legal Writing is how, throughout, Ms. Stephens provides clear instructions on how to accomplish what she's recommending. Instead of just telling you to plan what you're going to write, she walks you step-by-step through the planning. Instead of telling you to consider your audience before writing, she describes in detail the sorts of audiences a legal document might have (more than you'd expect!) and how to best meet their needs.
The book is divided into four parts. Part one, about writing and communication, really focuses on clarity. Chapters cover planning, research, organization, and critique, all with the reader in mind. Part two is about the writing itself, putting together sentences and paragraphs. One amusing chapter covers the horrors of traditional legal writing, and how you can avoid them. Part three covers the practicalities, formats for specific types of legal documents including memorandums and letters of opinion. It also gives pointers on how to give bad news, and how to visually present information for the best reception. Lastly, part four offers resources and references for further learning.
Plain Language Legal Writing will help you produce documents that people are willing to read and able to understand.
And a Bonus!
When you order Plain Language Legal Writing, you'll get a copy of Cheryl's report for attorneys and other professionals, Attracting Clients for Professional Success. Learn how to attract the work you love by
- branding yourself
- finding your mission
- networking with skill
Discover how to make clients seek you out.
A Sneak Peek at Plain Language Legal Writing
Cheryl's advice is clear, and direct. Here are some snippets to help you perfect your plain language writing.
Part 1
Writing as a Communication Process
Communication is not a one-way activity. You write in order to convey information to others. If your readers do not receive the message you intended to transmit, you have failed to communicate. Learning a few techniques can improve your writing efforts.
In the practice of law, often the most concrete product you deliver is a set of written documents. Whether or not the client achieves victory, the legal writer will be judged by the written product delivered and the feeling of the client that communication has been successful.
Legalese and Gobbledygook
Maury Maverick invented the word gobbledygook in 1944 to describe inflated, bureaucratic, impersonal writing. Such jargon produces cognitive closure in the average reader. In 1961, Henry Weihofen described gobbledygook's main attributes:
- It uses roundabout rather than direct ways of expressing the thought.
- It prefers pompous or pretentious to simple expressions.
- It makes excessive use of nouns.
- The nouns it uses tend to be abstract ones rather than concrete.
- It has a penchant for compound prepositional phrases.
- It makes much use of the passive instead of the active voice.
Plain Language Legal Writing refers to legal writing that is well thought out, well organized, and understandable to the client without interpretation: the language is clear, the legal concepts are explained and the technical terms are defined.
Plain language is the opposite of gobbledygook or legalese, and you know it when you see it. This book aims to show you how to create clear and effective legal prose: plain legal language.
The Writing Process
So using plain language is desirable, but how is it done? These seven steps are all you need to take to write effectively:
- Think about your reader and your purpose in writing. This may require research but will lead you to audience awareness.
- Plan how best to convey your message. This is your organizational phase.
- Prepare your first draft. This is the creation.
- Review your draft for common communication roadblocks. This is a general edit or revision.
- Prepare your edited version with care for technical factors. This is the technical edit.
- Use readers or other resources to evaluate your draft. This is testing.
- Reconsider your purpose, and the input you've received from other people, and revise your product again.
Inevitably, reviews will lead to changes. You will find yourself back at an earlier stage, reformulating and reconsidering your writing product. The writing process is like a spiral: the stages repeat at new levels until the desired result is achieved (or until you run out of time or money). It is said to be recursive.
Who is Cheryl Stephens, and
Why Should I Read Her Book?
After six years of practicing law, Cheryl Stephens found her calling as an educator, trainer, and consultant in legal communications and marketing. For nearly twenty years, she has been writing, speaking, and teaching about plain language, helping clients to become more successful communicators using plain language principles.
Cheryl is the author of several articles and books, including Plain Language Legal Writing. Her plain language blog, Rapport, is a popular resource online.
Bonus!
When you order Plain Language Legal Writing, you'll get a copy of Cheryl's report for attorneys and other professionals, Attracting Clients for Professional Success. Learn how to attract the work you love by
- branding yourself
- finding your mission
- networking with skill
Discover how to make clients seek you out.
She received her BA degree in 1970 from the University of the Pacific, in California, and her LLB (law) degree in 1977 from the University of British Columbia. Her graduate work was in communications, and she has also had extensive training in coaching and public speaking.
Cheryl's work appears on governmental websites and in classrooms of businesses and professional offices. She's served on the Board of Directors of the Association of Professional Communications Consultants, and on the Communications Advisory Board of the Vancouver City Savings Credit Union. Her memberships include the Canadian Association of Teachers of Technical Writing, the Association for Business Communications, and SCRIBES, the Association of Legal Writers.
Want to read more?
Here are some more of my favorite bits from Plain Language Legal Writing.
Decisions about form and content can only be made through an analysis that includes assessing the needs and abilities of the readers of the document.
When planning a legal writing project, it is helpful to think first of your own purpose in writing. Ask yourself this: Is my purpose to persuade, document, inform, or get action?
You should also ask yourself what your reader's purpose is in making the effort to understand your document. What does the reader want to know or do? The answer will give you a clearer statement of purpose.
Just the beginning
Those samples are just a small part of what you'll get if you download the full version of Plain Language Legal Writing. You'll discover:
- Clear instructions on how to get your thoughts in order for writing.
- Concrete steps to take when you have a rush job
- Cures for writer's block
- What it means to really know your audience
- When outlining can help, and how
- How you can identify your significant readers
- What your intro should include
- How to edit a colleague's work
- When and how to use precedent
- How to make your client a writing partner
- Ways to reword legal terms so they're understandable in plain English
- Methods for reducing wordiness
- When ambiguity is useful, and when it's a hindrance
- Traps that make your writing cumbersome
- How to structure a sentence for clarity
- Checklists for better writing
- Why you'll want to put people in your sentences
- How to give bad news without alienating your client
- Document design tips for encouraging readability
- What passive voice is good for
Want more details? Here's the full table of contents.
Table of Contents | |
| Introduction: What is Plain Language? | 5 |
| The Benefits of Plain Language | 5 |
| What to Expect Here | 7 |
Part 1 Writing as a Communication Process | 8 |
| Legalese and Gobbledygook | 8 |
| The Writing Process | 10 |
| Revision and Reorganization | 10 |
Chapter One Plan, Research, and Prepare | 12 |
| Ponder and Research | 12 |
| Prepare and Plan | 13 |
| A Writing Strategy for Tight Deadlines | 18 |
Chapter Two Tailor the Writing to the Reader | 20 |
| Identify the Audiences | 20 |
| Legal Writing and Client Literacy | 23 |
| Chapter Three Organize Both Content and Structure | 25 |
| Document Logic | 25 |
| Perspective | 26 |
| Outlining as an Organizer | 27 |
| Logical Sequence | 28 |
| Conscious Structure | 29 |
| Chapter Four Edit, Peer-edit, and Test | 32 |
| Editing Other Writers | 32 |
| The Last Check | 34 |
| A Caution on Precedents | 35 |
| Test a Document on Your Client | 35 |
| Part 2 Writing to Be Understood | 37 |
| Chapter Five Choose Your Words Wisely | 38 |
| Which Words Speak Directly to Your Readers? | 38 |
| Don't Use Problematic Vocabulary | 41 |
| Legal terms of art | 43 |
| Visual Aids | 44 |
| Chapter Six Features of Poor Legal Style | 47 |
| Lack of Clarity | 47 |
| Negativism | 52 |
| Nominalization and Loss of Agency | 56 |
| Chapter Seven Write Effective Sentences | 64 |
| Make the Sentences Easy | 64 |
| Use Personal Perspectives | 71 |
| Use Tabulation and Lists | 72 |
| Maintain Parallel Structures | 73 |
| Chapter Eight Design Paragraphs That Work | 76 |
| Paragraphs Have Logic | 76 |
| Cover One Topic | 76 |
| Keep Paragraphs Short | 77 |
| Link the Sentences | 77 |
| Part 3 Practical applications | 79 |
| Legal Writing Formats | 79 |
| Guidelines and Resources | 79 |
| Chapter Nine Modern Legal Correspondence | 80 |
| Clarify Your Purpose | 80 |
| Consider Your Reader | 81 |
| Write Complete and Accurate Letters | 82 |
| Organize the Letter for Highest Impact | 85 |
| Choose Your Words Thoughtfully | 86 |
| Use Modern Formats | 88 |
| Psychology for Good News or Bad News | 91 |
| Chapter Ten Legal Memorandums and Letter Opinions | 94 |
| The Memorandum versus the Opinion | 94 |
| The Writing Process and Purpose | 96 |
| General Style Matters | 97 |
| Form and Layout | 99 |
| Patterns of Persuasion | 100 |
| Legal Memorandum Structure | 102 |
| Legal Opinion Structure | 103 |
| Summary: Which format? | 105 |
| Chapter Eleven Guidelines for Visual Presentation | 106 |
| Simplicity | 106 |
| Contrast | 106 |
| Organization by Design | 109 |
| Image | 111 |
| Legal Writing Design | 112 |
| Part Four: Resources Writing Resources and Aids | 114 |
| Checklists and guidelines | 114 |
| Grammar-checkers | 114 |
| Reference sources | 114 |
| Write your own | 114 |
| Bibliography | 115 |
| Blawgs (Legal Blogs) | 116 |
| Glossary | 118 |
Here's the bottom line.
This e-book contains:
- 120 pages of concrete advice on making your legal writing more effective
- Secrets to creating good client relationships through clear legal writing
- Tricks for converting deadlines into writing focus
- And more, as you've seen.
The book will walk you step by step through making your writing client-friendly and understandable.
Plus, a bonus.
You'll also get Cheryl's 12 page report, Attracting Clients for Professional Success.
In it, you'll learn how, by understanding yourself, you can control the image you present, and draw clients to you easily.
Get this small but powerful guide to positioning yourself as a sought-out professional.
Get both,
Plain Language for Legal Writing, and
Attracting Clients for Professional Success
for only$25.
Prefer your books on paper?
Plain Language for Legal Writing is now available in an attractive paperback. Order it here.
P.S. Not ready to order yet?
News Flash!
[July 2008] Cheryl Stephens has been travelling all over the internet, visitng blogs and doing interviews to promote Plain Language Legal Writing. Check out her appearances on the blog tour page.
P.P.S. Got questions?
Write to me — Cheryl Stephens — directly. I'll get right back to you. Email cheryl@plainlanguage.com