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Full-Text Articles in Law

Enhancing The Effectiveness Of Your Legal Writing, Jason G. Dykstra Nov 2016

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

Articles

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, "There 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.


Bridging The Gap: Transitioning Law School Legal Writing Skills To Practicing Law, Jason G. Dykstra Sep 2016

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

Articles

No abstract provided.


Good Old-Fashioned Editing, Jason G. Dykstra Jan 2016

Good Old-Fashioned Editing, Jason G. Dykstra

Articles

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.