Lawyers are professional writers. Writing is an essential part of a practicing attorney’s daily work. Rather than decreasing the need for writing, the internet and other data transmission innovations have dramatically increased the flow of written communication. The twenty-first century will continue to bring new technologies to the practice of law, but the law will always require the certainty of the written word. Therefore lawyers must not only write more often, but also more quickly.
With this writing, i want to share the knowledge of the bacis principles of legal writing from the book, Legal Writing in a Nutshell,3rd Edition, (2003) with authors are Lynn Bahrych and Marjorie Dick Rombauer. They explained that the basic principle of legal writing such as:
First principle: Think, Then Write
Finish your analysis before beginning to write. Identify your audience. Think about how your audience will use what you write.
Second principle: Put First Things First
Make a list of the points you need to make or the purpose of your writing. With the need of your audience in mind, organize these points or purposes by putting the ones that are most important to your readers first. Usually this mean stating your conclusions first.
Third Principle: Answer The Question, Then Explain
Most types of legal writing provide answers to legal questions. Most readers want to know the answer immediately. This includes clients reading opinion letters and judges reading briefs. Answers should be given first, before supporting analysis or discussion.
Fourth Principle: Use Short, Simple Sentences
Keep sentences as short and simple as possible. Limit sentences to one unit of thought, that is, one subject-verb unit, whenever you can. All writing begins with a “unit of thought”. In English, this normally consists of a subject, or actor, and a verb, or action. Units of thought are basically pairs of nouns and verbs. For example, “sun rises” and “jury deliberates” are units of thought. A unit of thought is the basic building block of communication in the English language.
The first step in writing a simple sentence is to decide who or what will do something or be something. For readers, units of thought are best conveyed with a minimum of added information. A reader more quickly and easily understands the thought expressed by “sun rises” than by “behind the mountain, the winter sun, bringing little heat to the earth, gradually rises.” There is, of crouse, a place for rhetorical flourishes in persuasive writing. For the most part, however, the reader wishes to receive information quickly and concisely, with a minimum of extra words. If your sentece must be complex in structure or must contain several units of thought, try to yse repetitive structures, such as parallelism. Parallelism is simply a repetition of the order and types of words.
To save writing and reading time, the legal writer should identify the main subject and main verb (or predicate) in each sentence before writing it. Wherever possible,each sentence should begin with the noun or agent. For more information about the subject and predicate of a sentence and how to identify then.
Fifth Principle: Use Simple, Ordinary Words and Use Them Consistently
Select the simplest, shortest words to express your ideas. Common words are best. Legalese should be avoided in favor of ordinary language and common usage. Short words are easy to read and understand and should be chosen whenever possible. To avoid confussion or ambiguity, the same words should always be used to refer to the same things. Unlike other forms of writing, legal writing does not benefit from the use of synonyms or interesting variations of language. Legal writers should repeat nouns rather than using pronouns, even if it seems cumbersome. For the reader, it is easier to comprehend than trying to decide whether a different word implies a slightly different meaning. Use repetitive language even though it may be tedious for you as the writer. Readers of technical material find repetitive language easy to comprehend. Similarly, use different words to refer to different things. For lawyers, different words indicate different legal concepts, so careful word choice is an essential ingredient of legal writing.
Sixth Principle: Repeat, Repeat, Repeat
Repetition is crucial to communication, especially in a complex field such as law. The classical formula for oral argument is to state what you intend to say, say it, then state what you have said. For many types of legal writing, this formula should be followed. Repetition assists the reader, whether it is repetition of the same word to express the same concept, repetition of sentence structure to increase readability, or repetition of content for clarity or emphasis.
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