Thinking Like a Writer: A Lawyer's Guide to Effective Writing and Editing - Softcover

Armstrong, Stephen V.; Terrell, Timothy P.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0876328982 ISBN 13: 9780876328989

Publisher: Timothy Terrell, 1993

Synopsis

Incorporating the useful suggestions of attorneys who relied on the previous edition, the new Third Edition of Thinking Like a Writer gives you the specialized knowledge and techniques to draft clear and compelling legal documents - no matter how complicated the issues involved. Hailed as "the best book ever written on legal writing" by practicing attorney and former Marine Corps Staff Judge Advocate Theodore Hess, Thinking Like a Writer includes exercises, examples, and highlighted drafting do's and don'ts to help you to: . Craft introductions that activate readers' minds from the start.. Develop a writing persona that's credible, professional, and engaging.. Write strong, streamlined sentences that bring subjects into clear focus.. Create logically-linked paragraphs that carry readers forward smoothly.. Break up information stylistically and graphically to enhance comprehension.. Use syntax, verbs, and varied sentence lengths to keep readers' attention.. Instill writing with added grace, energy, character, and imagination.. Communicate directly with different audiences, including clients, associates, senior lawyers, and judges.. Identify drafting problems, understand their causes, and find the right editorial solutions.Thinking Like a Writer shows you how to blend reason and emotion, detail and simplicity, and concrete language and metaphors to ensure that your legal writing does full justice to your legal thinking

About this title

Synopsis

This is a different kind of book about legal writing. It assumes its readers are good writers who have already absorbed most of the usual advice about legal writing. But they may lack the intellectual framework for 'thinking like a writer' with the same incisiveness with which they think like a lawyer. This book provides that framework. It focuses on the underlying principles for communicating complicated information clearly and for establishing your credibility with demanding audiences. As a result, it helps to transform good writers into first-rate ones, and to make them far more efficient and powerful editors of their own writing and of others' drafts. Its unique approach will benefit supervising lawyers who do more editing than writing, as well as lawyers who do their own drafting.

Edition details

• Publisher: Timothy Terrell
• Publication date: 1993
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0876328982
• ISBN 13: 9780876328989
• Binding: Paperback