1. Some legal-writing advice meant esp for first-gen law students.
College taught me that the key to good writing was originality. 1L-year exams taught me that sounding like a lawyer was about spotting every issue.
To become a good legal writer, I had to unlearn both lessons.
College taught me that the key to good writing was originality. 1L-year exams taught me that sounding like a lawyer was about spotting every issue.
To become a good legal writer, I had to unlearn both lessons.
2. Good legal writing isn't about coming up with clever new ideas or expressing them in a unique new way. And it's nothing at all like an issue-spotting final exam.
Good legal writing is about clarity.
Good legal writing is about clarity.
3. Once you figure out what your most important points are, your job—your only job, more or less—is to state them as clearly as possible.
4. If the most important points are perfectly obvious, that's perfectly fine. Your job really, truly is not to make other points that are creative or obscure instead or also. Your job is to make your important points clearly.
5. How to write clearly is a big topic of its own. It sounds simple but it's actually damn hard, not something anyone enters law school able to do.
My point here, the one it took me way too long to get, is that learning legal writing requires some unlearning first. /end
My point here, the one it took me way too long to get, is that learning legal writing requires some unlearning first. /end
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