Thread by @MatthewStiegler

Hey #appellatetwitter, good typography takes some work, but avoiding bad typography is not hard.

You can achieve competent typography for your legal writing if you just get five basics right.

1. Use normal capitalization for all argument headings & subheads.

NOT ALL CAPS and definitely Not Title Caps. Use all caps only for section headings, like SUMMARY OF ARGUMENT.

Capitalizing headings is the most common typography blunder that good lawyers make. Still a blunder.

2. One space after periods.

3. Don't underline.

Not headings, not cites, not for emphasis. The only underlined text in your brief should be your signature.

Use bold for headings, use italics for cites and for emphasis (sparingly).

4. Don't use the spacebar to indent text.

Use paragraph formatting or at worst use tabs. Spacebar indents are a sad cry for help.

5. Don't use Times New Roman font.

I put this last because it's the *least mandatory of the 5. Sure, most lawyers still use TNR and it isn't awful like Courier or Arial.

But it's dullsville, and my friend you're better than that.

That's it. See, not that hard, right?

Now, to get from not-bad to good, the next thing to fix is your line spacing. For double-spaced text, use exactly 2x font size (e.g., use 28 point spacing for 14 point text). For single-spaced, use Word's 1.15 option. Startling improvement.

For more, check out Matthew Butterick's ludicrously useful online book Practical Typography.

practicaltypography.com/summary-of-key…