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Humanizing Transactional Documents: Why And How Transactional Drafters Should Use Narrative Techniques, Karen J. Sneddon

Articles

The core of many transactional documents will be the acquisition, creation, or exchange of property or services. Yet, transactional documents are not only descriptive legal devices that dictate the exchange of widgets for cash. They are multifaceted documents that have the ability to do more than memorialize a transaction and create the private laws between the parties. As narrative texts, transactional documents tell the stories of the parties' relationship, whether it be an employment agreement, trust document, or purchase and sale agreement. Transactional documents present necessary and relevant information as a series of linked events where the transacting parties become …