Law Commons^™

Legal Citation Part Ii: Tips & Tricks To Avoid Common Errors, Tenielle Fordyce-Ruff, Jason G. Dykstra

Jason Dykstra

This article goes over quick and easy tips to help one avoid the most common citation typeface and abbreviation errors often seen in practitioner filings.

Legal Citation Part Iii: Using Citation To Convey Textual Meaning, Tenielle Fordyce-Ruff, Jason G. Dykstra

Jason Dykstra

Remember, at our core, attorneys are advocates, and one of the purposes of citation is to prove to the reader that she can trust one's research-to prove that the law is what one states it is and that it works the way one stated it does.

In addition to understanding the language of citation and using the correct form, citation can also increase the level of trust one's reader will have in one's positions in two ways: signals and explanatory parentheticals.

Beyond The Basics: Lesser-Used Punctuation Marks, Tenielle Fordyce-Ruff, Jason G. Dykstra

Jason Dykstra

Occasionally legal writing can benefit from a few lesser-used punctuation marks. This article focuses on the proper use of the question mark, slash, and parentheses in legal writing. Used sparingly and correctly, these marks can enhance the clarity of your legal writing without sacrificing a formal tone or professional style. [excerpt]

Bridging The Gap: Transistioning Law School Legal Writing Skills To Practicing Law, Jason G. Dykstra

Jason Dykstra

Stylistically ... law school legal writing differs somewhat from writing in practice. ...This article ... is designed to help transition the legal writing skills honed in law school to the practice of Law. [excerpt]

Good Old-Fashioned Editing, Jason G. Dykstra

Jason Dykstra

While not perfect, the spelling and grammar review features of word processing software can prove good editing tools. Similarly, find and replace features can help ferret out any lurking malapropisms. These searches can avert the potential embarrassment of quoting a "statue" in the Idaho Code in a brief filed in "Canon County' However, electronic editing does not supplant the good old-fashioned printing-a-fresh-draft- and-reading-keenly style of editing. This article focuses on a few tips to optimize the effectiveness of editing text in print. [excerpt]

Govern Yourself Accordingly: Crafting Effective Demand Letters, Jason G. Dykstra

Jason Dykstra

An effective demand letter can expediently resolve a dispute without litigation. But a poorly conceived demand letter can accelerate a dispute toward litigation and even generate negative publicity. Like all correspondence, demand letters need to be tailored in tone and content for varied audience, both the intended recipient and other foreseeable recipients.

Beyond the intended recipient, the audience for a demand letter could encompass insurance adjusters, in-house counsel, and perhaps even the public via social media or press coverage. Therefore, an effective demand letter should not only be polite but firm, but also tell a persuasive story that evokes incredulity …

Enhancing The Effectiveness Of Your Legal Writing With Plain English, Jason G. Dykstra

Jason Dykstra

This article focuses on areas where busy practitioners can aspire for plain English and not only improve their writing but possibly avoid a few pitfalls. As Justice Brandeis once remarked[, "T]here is no such thing as good writing. There is only good rewriting" So here are three areas to focus on as you rewrite: minimizing initialisms, acronyms, and defined terms; losing legal jargon and cutting clutter; and balancing legal terms and precision. [excerpt]

To Verb Or Not To Verb, Jason G. Dykstra

Jason Dykstra

The metamorphosis of nouns into verbs, commonly called verbing or verbification, reflects a time-honored tradition in the English language of coining new uses from familiar words. Linguists use the term "functional shifting" to describe the conversion of nouns into verbs and vice versa. Verbing is common. By one estimate, about twenty percent of all verbs in English derive from nouns. Almost any noun can be verbed. Some verbed nouns are easy to identify because they don't change form when they become verbs: stump, mouse and torpedo. But, the transformation of other nouns into verbs requires the addition of an -ize, …